


Fleuriste

by jeonjeonyourwayhere



Category: SHINee, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Fleuriste, Flowers, Fluff and Angst, Greek Mythology - Freeform, M/M, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-06-10 15:59:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6963427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeonjeonyourwayhere/pseuds/jeonjeonyourwayhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this world, flowers and people have a beautiful affinity. From when we are born, we are already connected and linked with a certain flower. If the flower dies, we will die. So, it is also in the person’s best interest to never lose their flower, less they want to risk their existence fading away slowly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hey there, little Daisy

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So, I've posted this fic originally on AFF but, I decided to post here as well. Enjoy~ ♡

In this world, flowers and people have a beautiful affinity. 

 

 

From when we are born, we are already connected and linked with a certain flower. At the age of 1, a child will choose their own flower. From then, the flower stays connected with them till they move on from this lifetime. If the flower dies, they will die. The flower isn’t just a life-or-death indicator, it also works as a guide that steers us away from danger into the welcoming arms of good. Every person has their own setbacks and every time their setback hurts them, the flower is harmed as well. So, it is also in the person’s best interest to _never_ lose their flower, less they want to risk their existence fading away slowly.

 

❀

 

_The little boy slipped on his oversized black sweater, fumbling his way through it, “Mummy, may I take a look at my flower?”_

_“Sure, but don’t take too long or you’ll be late for school.” Mrs Jeon called out in a sing-song voice, flipping a pancake in the pan she was wielded with. No, you didn’t see that wrong- she wielded it. Mrs Jeon had once put a burglar in a coma once from slamming the pan into his head out of fear for her child’s safety. It was that burglar’s unlucky day since he decided to rob this household._

_Little Jungkook ran into his parent’s bedroom, opening the secret compartment in the closet, revealing three clear jars with flowers in them, sitting on the shelf. He reached out, taking the rightmost jar off the shelf and gazing into the jar. He breathed onto the jar, watching as the surface fog up and using his oversized sweater- with sleeves slightly longer than his arm- and wiping the fog off, cleaning the surface._

_“Pretty flower! Stay in bloom for a long time alright?” Jungkook kissed the jar, stared a little longer before placing it back on the shelf in the closet and closing the closet doors._

_“Jungkook-ah! Come eat your pancakes!”_

_“Coming!” Little Jungkook excitedly ran out, giggling at the thought of fresh fluffy blueberry pancakes._

 

❀

 

“Mum, I bet you she’s a lily.” Jungkook murmured, pointing towards the customer who was carrying a baby girl and approaching the store.

Mrs Jeon got off her seat, standing upright and patting down her apron, “Let’s see if you’re right again.” 

“Welcome Madam, may I help you and your lovely child?” Mrs Jeon approached the customer with her most beautiful smile.

“Ah yes! My baby girl is turning 1 tomorrow so of course, it’s time for her to get her own flower.” The customer smiled back, taking her child’s hand in hers and waving it to Mrs Jeon and Jungkook who was watching from a distance.

“No problem, right this way. We have a huge variety of flowers to choose from, all grown with love.” Mrs Jeon walked over to the refrigerators, turning to look at Jungkook who took it as his cue to throw her gloves to her. The lady caught the gloves and continued to converse with the customer. It didn’t take very long at all for the baby to start giggling and reaching out, over her mother’s arms, towards a specific flower.

“Is it this one?” The mother of the child struggled to make sure her child wouldn’t fall, her child reacting negatively to the flower she suggested.

Mrs Jeon chuckled softly, moving over to reach for a lily that sat in one of the cases right at the end of the refrigerator, “Is it this one, baby girl?”

The baby girl giggled in joy, reaching for her lily and grinning away revealing her few teeth. Mrs Jeon and the customer laughed at the baby girl’s response with Mrs Jeon play-tickling the baby girl. Jungkook immediately walked over, passing his mother a jar and accepting the customer’s credit card with two hands.

Mrs Jeon had been running this floral boutique for almost two decades. To be exact, she started the shop when Jungkook was born. Jungkook had been helping her in the store ever since he turned 5, helping her at the boutique usually meant bringing her jars that he could reach on the shelf (which weren’t very high up since he was still a child back then). Now, he helped mostly with the cashier duties and clean up.

Mrs Jeon cooed to the baby girl in the customer’s arms, “Thank you, and do visit us again! See you again soon, little lily.” 

Jungkook grinned his usual teeth-y smile, giving the baby girl a high-five. He followed the customer out, waving goodbye and moving to turn the ‘Open’ sign to ‘Closed’. The baby girl with the lily was the last customer of the day. Jungkook walked back into the store while stretching his arms outwards, almost knocking a jar over, “Told you she was a lily.” The 18 year old gave his mother a back hug, kissing her cheek.

“Oh, don’t think you can avoid doing the dishes tonight. We never set the conditions to the bet.” Mrs Jeon smirked, fake punching her son on the shoulder.

“Ah, it hurts!” Jungkook laughed, running to grab the broom to sweep up the fallen leaves lingering by the doorstep of the boutique. Once the sweeping had been done, Jungkook came back in and locked up the entrance to the store before coming back to his mother.

“Jungkook-ah, ready to go up?” Mrs Jeon smiled watching her son arrange the flowers in the refrigerator.

“C-can I read the book once more?” Jungkook gave it his best to smiling, failing rather miserably with an awkward grin.

“Why are you so nervous? Tomorrow is just another normal day, just that it’s your first day of college.” The middle-aged woman (who was aging very gracefully) came up behind her son, patting his back and reaching for the book on the shelf, passing it to him.

Jungkook flipped to his favourite page, the ‘Daisy’, “I don’t know. I’m excited, but not excited. I don’t know, it’s really conflicting.”

“It’s alright, hun. Read the book all you want, I’ll be starting up dinner first in time for Papa to come home. Just remember to lock up, alright?” Mrs Jeon gave her son the same teeth-y smile that he inherited from her. He wasn’t sure how a middle-aged woman could look so graceful and adorable at the same time- not that he was calling himself adorable (he really was though). The thick book he held, was the first book he’d ever read in his life. Somehow, it always gave him a little bit more courage and strength whenever he flipped to and read the page of the Daisy.

 

_Daisy |pronounced /ˈdeɪ.zi/_

_The Daisy is a flower that has a yellow core with, usually, white petals decorating its’ circumference. Daisies come in many different colours now, including bright yellow, pink, red, purple, blue and orange._

_The Daisy also signifies Innocence, Purity, and Childhood._

 

Jungkook closed the book, sighing once, “I can do this. It’s just school, but college. It’s also an elite academy. That’s alright, no stress. You do you, Jeon.” 

 

❀

 

“A big welcome to our new Year 1 students, for making it into our prestigious Floral Academy. We hope that during your time here, you will create wonderful memories. You will be learning more about flowers, others around you and of course, about yourself.

Flowers and us, have a great affinity. We cannot live without flowers, you all know that. Therefore, with your entrance into this academy, we foresee all of you to graduate with wonderful results and memories to move on into the real outside world where you can help improve the industries that you’ve chosen.

‘La vie est une fleur dont l’amour est le miel’ is our school motto which means, ‘Life is a flower of which Love is the honey’. Whether it is love for learning, love for others or the love for something you have the passion in, you will find out during your time here. Lastly, just a kind reminder for all students to NEVER lose their flower. You all should also know why. Good luck, bumblebees. Thank you.” Ms Park, the principal of Floral Academy, spoke and left the podium with applause erupting from the audience.

It was right after assembly when all students had to head to their rooms in the hostel. It was time for roommates to meet, probably fight, and hopefully, not find out what their roommate’s flower was. Jungkook pulled his luggage along, reading the admission letter he received and navigating his way to his own room amongst the swarm of students in the hostel.

_This should be the right room, it does say Room 201._ Jungkook thought, shuffling towards the door and turning the knob to open it.

“Oh, it isn’t locked. Which means my roommate is already here. Sigh, good luck Jeon.” Jungkook said rhetorically, pushing the door open. 

“OH MY GOD.” A scream sounded from inside the room. Jungkook almost tripped over himself at the sound of the scream. He wasn’t in a horror movie that’s for sure. The scream came from a pale-orange haired boy who was sat on the floor hugging onto his flower jar, at least that’s what Jungkook assumed. He wore black skinny jeans paired with the fluffiest grey sweater that Jungkook had ever seen, it would be a lie if Jungkook said that he didn’t want to swim in it (not that it was even possible).

“Turn around, please!” The carrot top pleaded, his head buried in his arms, covering his jar.

Jungkook immediately retreated back out the door, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.” A while later, the door opened again but this time, there was no scream. Though, facing Jungkook was the same boy which the scream belonged to. The boy had plump pink lips and pale skin that was by far paler than any others’ that Jungkook had seen.

“Come in! I’m sorry I yelled at you, I mean I’m sure you know that we’re not supposed to look at other flowers and well, you almost saw mine. It’s not your fault though! I’m sorry if I scared you.” The other boy babbled on and on, a slight blush creeping into his cheek when he properly noticed Jungkook’s appearance. Jungkook had solid black hair, styled into a slight 60-40 proportionate parting. He was wearing a pure white fluffy sweater that was definitely over-sized and black jeans with black boots.

“I’m Park Jimin! You are?” The orange-haired boy reached a hand out towards Jungkook.

“Jeon Jungkook, nice to meet you.” Jungkook gave his best ‘I’m-not-awkward-with-you’ smile, reaching out to shake the other boy’s hand. 

“I like you already. Rooming with you will be fun. Alright, I’ll leave first since I need to go meet someone else. See you later, emo boy.” Jimin skipped out of the room while holding on to his books, turning back to wave at Jungkook once more and closing the door behind him.

Jungkook let out the breath he was holding in, turning to face the room, properly taking in the details now that the orange-haired boy had distracted him greatly. Not that it was a bad distraction, though. The room was bigger than he expected, wooden floor and white interior. The room was symmetrically designed, a single bed with cream white bed sheets placed at the opposite walls of the room. One big closet sat at the back wall of the room, cutting into both Jungkook half and Jimin’s half of their room. Assuming from the symmetry, he guessed that it was a shared closet. Two separate study tables sat, once again, at opposite walls in the room. It was a pleasant room and he had a pleasant roommate. 

Jungkook unpacked his clothes, reaching for his flower jar. He held it gingerly, almost as if it were to break and putting it into the secret compartment in the closet designed for putting flower jars. After stuffing most of his clothes into the closet, he grabbed his phone, schedule and reached into his luggage to grab all his books. Getting up onto his feet, he struggled and used one arm to carry all his things while he locked up the room with the other, then proceeding to find his locker to dump all his books there.

 

❀

 

“First lesson of your college life, how exciting. I’m Professor Kim and I’ll be teaching you about the History and Mythology behind flowers.” Professor Kim smiled up to the lecture hall full of students. She looked really young, considering how she was jumping up and down while talking. She skipped over to the whiteboard and wrote down the name of one flower.

 

_Daisy_

 

“Every lesson, I will introduce a flower, sometimes I may do more than one depending on my mood. After the lesson, you are required to do a short report on the flower I introduced and hand it up to me next lesson.”

Jungkook was fidgety at the fact that they had to start with his flower. He nervously glanced around the hall, immediately spotting the Jimin with another boy who also had orange hair. Jimin spotted Jungkook at the same time and waved, grinning his eye-smile at Jungkook. 

“The Daisy is a beautiful flower that is usually seen with white petals. It is very likely to see other colours as well but white is most common. They signify Innocence, Purity, and Childhood. It’s not rare to see a child, holding onto a Daisy and pulling off its’ petals one by one while whispering “She loves me, She love me not” and perhaps, that is why the daisy signifies Childhood and Innocence.” Professor Kim smiled, staring directly at Jungkook in the eyes for a moment.

“Moving on.”


	2. Roses are Red (or White)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I will put warnings before scenes with mature themes, so do avoid if you're not comfortable with it!

“I still have some time left, shall I talk about another flower?” Professor Kim walked in front of her desk and sat on it, swinging her legs that didn’t reach the floor. “My sister, who is currently working at R Company, graduated college with an almost perfect score. I saw her study every night, it was quite shocking that she didn’t get a perfect score. You all know R company, don’t you? Tell me what it is.”

A voice from a few rows behind Jungkook spoke up, “R Company is the lead research company in floral medicine.”

“Bingo. My sister is currently one of the higher-up managers there. It took her almost 4 years to get up there. But there she is, sitting up there because she deserved it.” Professor Kim wiped a fake tear from her face, “Let’s all take a moment to guess as to what flower she is.”

“Sunflower!”

“Lotus!”

Professor Kim smiled at the answers and simply got off the table, skipping over to the board and scribbling down the word ‘Rose’ in her perfect cursive handwriting. The moment the word was written, there was a sudden silence. 

“Red Rose, to be exact.”

Professor Kim chuckled to herself silently, facing the board and turning it upside-down to reveal the back of it, which was a black board. She whipped out two sticks of chalk (no one was sure where it came from), one red and one white. It was then that the chattering in the lecture hall grew louder and some shouts could be heard from the very back of the hall. Jungkook wasn’t sure what was being shouted but it was definitely a mixture of “fuck them” and “fuck roses”. For sure he heard a “Roses? More like thorns and pricks.”

Within the next thirty seconds, Professor Kim had already drawn two huge illustrations of roses- one red, one white. She turned around shouting, “Oh shut up, you lot.”

“Let’s begin with the White Roses. What do they symbolize? Any answers? Just shout them out.” Professor Kim looked upwards, waiting for answers.

“Innocence!”

“Purity!”

“Spirituality!”

“Sympathy!”

 

Professor Kim turned towards the board and starting jotting down the answer under the white rose that she’d drawn.

“How about the Red Roses?” She turned to look at the crowd, folding her arms.

“Cowards!”

“They suck up to people a lot.”

“Stuck-ups!”

“Arrogant idiots!” 

 

Professor Kim slammed her palm onto the blackboard, causing a slight dust cloud to arise. She looked up at everyone in the crowd and spoke calmly, “Alright, enough. I said symbolism, not stereotypes.” Slowly but surely, “appropriate” answers were being murmured from various locations in the hall.

“Passion.”

“Love.”

“Immortal love.”

“Promise.”

 

Professor Kim’s face slowly lit up with a smile, she turned to look at the board and starting writing. After she had written all the answers down, she turned back to face the crowd, speaking in a very soothing tone. Jungkook turned to his notes, jotting and doodling whatever Professor Kim had written on the board. He put his pen down and stretched his arms, turning to look in the direction of Jimin and the other Orange-haired boy. Jimin wasn’t smiling anymore. He was sitting closer to the other boy, his left hands covering most of his face while his right hand was free taking notes on his baby blue notebook.

“Let’s take this as an example. Whatever just went on here, was the perfect example of a social prejudice. Yes, Roses are considered the highest of flowers. But, the original Red Roses had done well on their own to deserve their recognition. This recognition was just…misused by the bad people who happened to be Red Roses and it’s passed down till today. Indeed a lot of them, since the ancient times, have misused the trust people placed in them. But no, it is absolutely unacceptable to take the wrongdoings of one individual Red Rose and seed them onto the other innocent Red Roses.” Professor Kim spoke, folding her arms again.

“In my class, I will absolutely not accept any form of discrimination no matter what flower you have. We are all equal and we will leave it as that.” 

The petite lady grinned, “Alright, moving on. Roses are symbolic carriers of secrets. During the ancient Roman times, people would always hang roses above their meeting tables making sure everyone understood that whatever had been said at the table, will remain at the table only. And in Tarot card reading, roses in the Strength card symbolize balance. Roses have the beauty but, they also have defenses and will provide protection. Obviously, I mean there are thorns on the stems, yeah?”

Professor Kim turned to look Jimin dead in the eyes, “Red Roses are beautiful. Never deny it.”

 

❀

 

It was the end of the lecture and Jungkook flipped open his notebook, scribbling down notes about the work that was due during the next lesson.

“Report…about Daisies and Roses, minimum of 500 words each.” Jungkook bit his lips, a habit developed since young whenever he was concentrating. His concentration was broken however, the moment he saw a flurry of orange run towards him from the teacher’s desk.

“Kookie! Let’s go back to our room, we have an hour till our next lesson.” Jimin grinned, surprising Jungkook with the polar opposite expression. Just 15 minutes ago, the boy was all curled up in a ball and falling asleep (at least Jungkook thought he saw that).

“O-oh, um okay.” Jungkook scribbled down a few more words before grabbing all his books in one hand and scrambling to get out of his seat. The orange haired boy let him walk first, following closely behind him. Jungkook didn’t want to admit that Jimin’s friendliness worried him a little. He hadn’t had much experience with friends since people always thought he was mean just from his stoic face, but really, Jungkook was mostly shy.

 _He seemed so tough, maybe not huh?_ Jimin chuckled at the sight of the black-haired boy who almost tripped on his way out of the lecture hall. Jimin quickened his steps, hooking an arm around the taller boy’s neck and pulled him along. When they reached their room, Jungkook reached a hand into his pocket fishing out the key which he then proceeded to accidentally drop on the floor.

“You’re quite the klutz too, hmm?” Jimin grinned, bending down to pick it up for him and casually opening the door. He reached over to hold Jungkook’s hand, pulling him in. This took Jungkook by surprise, resulting in him stoning and staring at Jimin the moment they were in the room alone.

“Are you alright?” Jimin waved a hand in front of Jungkook’s face, knocking the boy out of his trance.

“U-uh, yeah. I am. Are you? You didn’t seem that well in class just now.” Jungkook turned to place his book on his desk, sitting on his bed and facing Jimin.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jimin faked a smile, lying down on his bed and facing the ceiling.

“Well, if you say so. But just to put it out there, you can always talk to me. My mum always said I was good at listening to people.” Jungkook leaned back on one hand, scratching the back of his neck with the other.

Jimin rolled over to face Jungkook, grinning, “I know, I can tell. Like I said, I had a good feeling about you. I like you already, roommate.” 

“L-like?” Jungkook felt a blush creeping up.

“As a friend, silly.” The boy who was lying down laughed, holding onto his tummy.

Jungkook laughed, almost choking on his own saliva, “Oh by the way, who was the other orange-haired boy with you just now?” 

“Ah, Taehyung. I met him today, right before school started.” Jimin sat up, beaming at the other boy. 

Jungkook would never admit it but he did find Jimin very attractive, especially when he smiled or laughed so hard his eyes would disappear into crescents. Jimin was a tad bit shorter than him, but it was fine since he could still hook his arm around Jungkook’s shoulder. Thinking back about it had brought butterflies back into Jungkook’s tummy. The boy immediately turned his head away, covering his face with his hand and the long sleeve of his sweater. God bless, whoever created sweaters.

Jimin glanced at his table, remembering the pamphlet he’d received just now. He got off the bed and skipped towards the table, picking up the pamphlet and passing it to Jungkook.

“Do you wanna come with Taehyung and I? The club fest is tomorrow night and we can go visit booths to sign up for club activities!” Jimin was practically bouncing up and down like an excited child. Was he really a college kid?

“Sure.” Jungkook felt really comfortable around Jimin. Maybe because he was the first to open up to Jungkook that quickly. Then again, they were roommates.

 

❀

 

_**Warning: Avoid this section if you feel uncomfortable reading scenes of violence**_

 

 

_“You’re a disgrace to us. How could you?” Mrs Park raised her hand, giving little Jimin a hard slap across his face, his chubby cheek turning red almost immediately._

_Tears formed in his little eyes and he cried, “Mummy? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to choose it.”_

_“Get up!” Mr Park shouted from across the room, little Jimin could almost feel his rage from where he was. Jimin felt so weak in his legs that it took him all his energy just to stand up, his arms wiping away tears that were streaming down his face._

_“Why the fuck are you so slow?!” Mr Park rushed over, pushing the boy onto the floor. Jimin could only cry, he was defenseless._

_“You’re the thing I’m most ashamed of. How could my own flesh and blood choose a Red Rose?” Mrs Park was seething through her teeth, her face a dangerous shade of red._

_“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” The defenseless boy cried, his vision all blurry and he was still planted on the ground. His body hurt so much he couldn’t move._

_“Get out of my sight. We’re all proud White Roses, your mother and I. You just HAD to choose the Red Rose. Disgraceful.” Mr Park spat, turning on his heel and walking out of the house._

 

 

_**End of Section**_

 

 

“No!” Jimin was jerked awake, only to find Jungkook sitting next to him by the foot of his bed.

“Hey, you alright?” Jungkook peered up at him, holding onto his hand.

“Y-yeah. I guess.” Jimin fake-smiled.

“It's like 3am in the morning, I thought I was hearing things.” Jungkook chuckled, “It’s alright, just a nightmare. Go to sleep, yeah?”

Jimin wiped the sweat of his forehead, “Yeah, just a nightmare.” 

Moments later, Jungkook was back on his own bed soundly asleep as proven by the soft snores. Jimin got off his bed softly, walking over to the other boy’s bed. He watched Jungkook for a moment, giving his cheek a soft poke and whispered.

“Thank you, Jungkook. But it wasn’t a nightmare.”


	3. Hyacinths' are Blue

“Jungkook-ah, time for Mythology class.” The orange-haired boy woke Jungkook up from his afternoon nap with a pat on his shoulder.

“H-huh? Five more minutes…” The sleeping boy rolled in his bed, facing the wall.

“Come on, we’re going to be late.” Jimin made Jungkook sit up, the black-haired boy ruffling and adjusting his bedhead hair while his eyes were still close. Jimin walked over to Jungkook’s desk, grabbing his books and report and went back over to the bed to pull Jungkook off the bed. 

“I thought you’d be going with Taehyung?” Jungkook locked up their room, moving to Jimin and taking his stuff from the orange-haired boy, mouthing a ‘thank you’.  

“Oh, nah not today. He has some stuff to settle with a senior of his. Unless…you don’t want to go to class with me?” Jimin pouted, looking down at his feet while walking beside Jungkook.

“N-no, it’s not like that at all. It’s nice to go to class with someone.” Jungkook scratched the back of his neck, flustered.

“Yay! I was just kidding, though. Come on, let’s go!” The orange flurry ran forward in front of Jungkook, turning to look back at him with a grin.

 

❀

 

“Reports all on the table by the end of class, alright? We’ll get on with the lesson first.” Professor Kim sat on her desk, waiting for the stream of students to end. Jungkook and Jimin were among the last batch of students to arrive, resulting in them getting seats at the front of the hall.

“Perfect. Now, name me flowers that have blue petals.” The petite lady glanced around class, sneaking a smile at Jungkook and Jimin who were now sat next to one another.

“Hydrangeas!”

“Lobelias!”

There was a knock on the door and a guy with the shiniest grey hair came walking in, placing a document next to Professor Kim. The guy immediately turned on his heel, casually answering her question as he walked out the classroom, “Hyacinths.”

“Yes, Yoongi. Thank you!” Professor Kim grinned, waving after the boy. Murmurs in the hall started, both from girls and guys. Jungkook and Jimin didn’t get to see his face that well and they were in the front, how did people in the back see him at all? 

 

“He’s so cute!”

“Oh my god, I know!”

“He’s a senior though, damn it!” 

 

Professor Kim chuckled, holding up her hand asking for silence. She was pretty amused with the response, seeing as every batch of Year 1s always said that about seniors.

“His name is Yoongi, a Year 2 student specializing in Psychology/Research. Now, stop fangirling and fanboying in class.” Professor Kim hopped off the table and headed straight for the whiteboard, taking a marker and writing the words “Blue Hyacinth” once again in her perfect handwriting.

“What does the Hyacinth symbolize?”

 

“Constancy!”

“Good Luck!”

“Faithfulness?” The last voice sounded uncertain.

 

Professor Kim noted them down, “Yes, indeed. Faithfulness is symbolized by the Hyacinth too. Well done. Now, does the name ‘Hyacinth’ ring any bell?”

“Greek Mythology?” Jungkook said instinctively, not realizing he said his thoughts out loud. The lady beamed at the answer, turning to face Jungkook.

“Yes! Tell me about it, you seem to know a little about what I’m referring to.” Professor Kim smiled, directing the attention of every single person in the hall towards Jungkook.

“U-um…Apollo and Hyacinth were…lovers. But Hyacinth was killed.” Jungkook stuttered, lowering his head at the sudden realization that everyone was staring.

Jimin was sure he heard a mixture of “he’s hot”, “look at his hair!” and “date me please?” from around the hall, feeling a random bubble of jealousy rise up in him.

“Correct. Apollo and Hyacinth were lovers, male lovers. Zephyr, the west wind, was jealous of that. He wanted Hyacinth for himself. So, during a game of discus between Apollo and Hyacinth, Zephyr caused the discus to fly off course and it struck Hyacinth in the head, causing his death. Apollo, who refused to let Hades take Hyacinth away from him, turned Hyacinth into a flower.” Professor Kim said while colouring in the Hyacinth that she’d just drawn on the board.

“Where does the constancy come in?” Jimin asked, raising his hand and causing a few heads to turn. This time, Jungkook heard a “he’s adorable, can he be mine?” and a “why are there so many good-looking guys in this school, god blessed me” from a few rows behind him.

“Ah yes. In weddings, the colour blue gives the bride good luck and symbolizing that the couple will always be each other’s constant. Faithfulness for each other too. Heard of the phrase “If you marry in blue, your love will be true”? Yep, that’s where the Blue Hyacinth comes into play.”  Professor Kim smiled at Jimin, giving him a thumbs-up.

The whole time, Yoongi was behind the door and leaning against it, smirking when he heard Jimin’s voice. 

“The same old curious Jimin. I’ve missed you, Red Rose.” The grey-haired boy murmured it to himself before turning to walk off down the hallway.

By the end of the lesson, Jungkook’s hand had passed out from scribbling all the notes. Professor Kim loved to write, it didn’t even seem tiring for her to write so much. She had to erase the board like four times just to write all she needed. The worst thing was that the board wasn’t even small.

“Next lesson, report on Blue Hyacinths. Thank you. Dismissed!” Professor Kim smiled, “Jimin, may I talk to you for a moment after the rest of the students leave?”

The sudden request surprised Jimin, “Of course!” 

Jungkook tapped Jimin’s shoulder, “I’ll wait for you outside. See ya.” Jimin smiled, his turn to mouth a ‘thank you’ at the boy.

 

❀

 

“Professor Kim, you wanted to speak to me?” Jimin asked, his voice slightly shaky.

“Yes, oh Jimin, I’m not that scary am I?” The lady laughed seeing Jimin’s visible and audible fear.

“No…I was surprised that you’d call me.” Jimin laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck, “But what did you call me for, may I ask?”

“Have you told anyone about your flower?” Professor Kim asked, a sweet smile hung on her face. It seemed genuine, at to Jimin it felt like that.

“N-no.”

Professor Kim moved to tidy up her table from all the paper that the students had left behind, “You’re special, you know?”

“Why…I’m nothing but a coward.” Jimin bit his lip, sighing.

“Just because you’re a Red Rose? That’s no way to see it. I could tell what flower you were the moment you stepped in. Red Roses have a special aura. They’re just so lovable and they are also genuine. Unless that specific person is bad then well, can’t be helped. But I know you’re good. Don’t let it get you down. I mean, you already have two friends who like you for who you are. The other orange-haired boy, what’s his name, Taehyung? And Jungkook?” Professor Kim gave him a pat on the back, cheering him up slightly.

“Just be yourself. Hold these words closely to your heart. It’ll do you good.”

 

❀

 

“Did you get in trouble already? It’s the second lesson man.” Jungkook joked, slightly nudging Jimin with his elbow.

“Nope, it’s all good.” Jimin grinned, sincerely.

“Hmm, alright. I have a good ear, just saying again.” Jungkook pulled at his pierced ear, smiling at Jimin. Jimin laughed, unlocking the door to their shared room. Both boys walked in, immediately sprawling on their own beds. Jimin snuggled his blanket while Jungkook laid face down, pillow over his head.

“Ugh, there’s still the club fest later. Ugh.” Jungkook groaned, fake-crying into his bed.

“It’s the second day of school and I already want to bury myself in pillows and cry to sad music while it’s raining outside and the cold breeze comes in through the window to gently caress my face.” Jimin joined in on the fake-crying, he had no idea college was this draining. Plus, they didn’t actually do much at all, besides cramming their reports and memorizing plant names in Latin.

Both boys refused to move, not even budging from their positions for the next hour or so.

 

_Knock knock_

 

“Come in!” Jimin yelled, still snuggling his face into his blanket. Jungkook peeked up from under his pillow to see the other orange-haired boy (whose name was apparently Taehyung) come in.

“O-oh, hello! You must be Jungkook.” Taehyung smiled his signature rectangle shape grin, walking to Jungkook and offering his hand out. Jungkook struggled to get up, flattening his hair before reaching out to give Taehyung a firm handshake.

“Yeah, you’re Taehyung?” Jungkook asked, throwing a pillow at Jimin in hopes he’d get up off his lazy ass.

“Yah!” Jimin laughed, throwing the pillow back at Jungkook.

“Were you in class just now?” Jungkook raised an eyebrow, gesturing for Taehyung to take a seat on his bed since all the chairs were piled with books from the previous night’s chaos.

“Yeah, but I came in from the backdoor.” Taehyung smiled, sitting down beside Jungkook.

“Backdoor? There’s a backdoor?” Jimin stopped moving, looking at Taehyung.

“Yeah, my senior told me.” Taehyung nodded, further explaining the foreign route to the other two boys.

“Woah. Who’s your senior though?” Jungkook asked, hugging a pillow.

“Lee Jinki. He’s the drama club president. But he made us call him ‘Onew’ since it’s his nickname.” Taehyung said with a slightly sad smile hung on his face. Jungkook noticed it, but Taehyung immediately broke out into a smile again.

“Come on, let’s go get food before the fest. We get to watch some clubs perform too!”

 

❀

 

“Ladies and Gentleman. Welcome to this year’s club festival! In just a few moments, the performances will begin but in the meantime, do walk around and take a look at the booths set up. Tonight will be the only chance you get to sign up for the club you want. If you miss out on this chance, you’ll have to wait till next year. So, do consider carefully. Have fun!” The emcee on stage spoke in a slightly formal tone, laughing along with the audience every now and then.

“What clubs are you two joining?” Taehyung asked, holding onto a hotdog in his hand.

“Dance! Hoseok is there!” Jimin shouted, pointing towards the Dance booth.

“Who’s Hoseok?” Jungkook and Taehyung asked simultaneously.

“Oh, he’s a childhood friend of mine. And also a senior in this school now.” The orange fluff ran over to the booth, leaving the two of them behind.

“How about you?” Taehyung took a bite out of the hotdog, licking his lips to rid them of ketchup.

“Hmm…music composition, probably.” Jungkook looked around at the booths, only interested in Music Composition and Dance.

“Ah that sounds good, alright I’ll leave you to head over to those booths. Come find me at the Drama club booth later!” Taehyung grinned, waving to Jungkook as he walked off in the other direction.

Jungkook waved back, turning around and shoving both his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. The whole place was intimidating really, there was certainly too much people everywhere. The black-haired boy plucked up his courage and walked towards the Music Composition booth only to see a familiar face (figure actually). It was the grey-haired guy that came into their class earlier in the day. 

Now that Jungkook got a proper look of the guy’s face, he actually was pretty good-looking. He had skin paler than Jimin’s (how was that even possible) and he wore a black beanie that covered his grey hair a little. His grey hair looked really good too, it wasn’t the grandfather kind of grey. It was kind of metallic and shiny, which suited him really well.

“Hello, are you interested to join us?” The guy with grey hair spoke up, probably with the laziest tone Jungkook’s ever heard.

“Yeah I am. But, do you need to have experience to join?” Jungkook laughed weakly, glancing at all the intimidating equipment that was displayed on the table.

“I do have a…sample of what I’ve experimented with before, though.” Jungkook reached into the back pocket of his skinny jeans, pulling out a thumb drive that he’d never spoken to anyone about before.

“Oh, that’s great. Lemme listen to it.” The guy took the thumb drive from Jungkook, plugging it into the system and putting on his headphones. About 20 seconds into the first track, his eyes lit up.

“This is amazing for an experiment. You’re in.” The grey-haired boy grinned, giving Jungkook a pat on the shoulder.

“R-really?” Jungkook was taken by surprise, it literally was his first composition which he’d strung together a few days ago. He’s always had a great interest in music from young and he found out about the music composition club from this school, but he didn’t expect to get in immediately.

“Yeah, I’m Yoongi. President of the Music Composition club, you’re now my understudy and the future president.”

Jungkook’s mouth dropped, “What? Future president?! What are you talking about, I just joined the club.” 

“Everyone else in this club is just…so-so. None of their compositions really blew me away though. But you, hearing this from you, is amazing and I’ve decided.” Yoongi smiled, immediately passing Jungkook a form.

“Here, sign up by filling out this form. Nice to have you in the club, buddy.” Yoongi nudged Jungkook with the clipboard, earning a grin from the boy.

“Yah, recruiting already? How many have you rejected?” A tall brunette walked over with Jimin at his side who was waving to Jungkook.

“He’s the first to come by and he’s in. My understudy too.” Yoongi gave the excited brunette a high-five.

“I’m Hoseok, president of the dance club. This is my understudy, Jimin.” Hoseok extended a hand forward to Jungkook, which Jungkook accepted.

“Hoseok, Jungkook and I are roommates. We already know each other. Oh Jungkook, this is the childhood friend I mentioned.” Jimin grinned.

“This is Yoongi, the guy who came into our class just now?” Jungkook said to Jimin, his hands and eyes busy with filling up the form.

“Ah, hello!” Jimin smiled, waving to the grey-haired boy which the latter reciprocated with a nod.

 

❀

 

“How’s Jimin been?” Yoongi asked the brunette, who was busy cleaning up his booth.

“He’s good. Still not over him?” Hoseok replied faking a smile.

“I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t expect to see him here.” The grey haired boy shuffled back and forth, grabbing wires from everywhere.

“Oh. Yeah. He’s doing fine.” Hoseok mumbled, grabbing the last of the stuff and walking away from Yoongi, heading back to the dance room. He turned up the volume of the stereo which coincidentally, starting playing a ballad. He started to move his body, moving to the beat of the song and slowly forgetting his thoughts of Jimin and Yoongi. 

Hoseok and Jimin were childhood friends. Whereas Yoongi was a senior from Jimin’s high school, though they never interacted and Jimin didn’t even remember Yoongi. When Hoseok and Yoongi met in college, Yoongi got drunk one night. Well, that is self-explanatory as to how Hoseok found out about Yoongi’s crush on Jimin (which Jimin still doesn’t even know about). And that, is also self-explanatory as to why Hoseok is upset over the fact that Yoongi hasn’t forgotten about Jimin. It’s been almost a year since he’s promised himself he’d be happy for Yoongi, he promised to keep a smile on his face.

It’s also been almost a year since Hoseok fell for the grey-haired boy.

 


	4. Where's the Sun, Sunflower?

_“Hoseok-ahhhhh, drink with meee. Drink with meeee!” Yoongi was drunk, he was sitting on the grand piano in the music composition club room for crying out loud._

_“Yoongi, let’s get off the piano first, alright?” Hoseok faked a smile, trying to carry Yoongi off the piano. It was the third time that week that Yoongi had gotten drunk this badly. Every time, Hoseok would have to drag his lazy drunken ass back to their room and to be honest, it wasn’t that fun having to do so. Once Hoseok had gotten them back into their room, he put Yoongi in bed, removing Yoongi’s shoes and beanie._

_“Hoseok, where’s Jimin? Am I invisible? Can’t he see me?” Yoongi was sobbing, waving a hand in Hoseok’s face, trying to prove that he wasn’t invisible._

_“Yoongi, just go to sleep. You know what, just forget Jimin. You’re already in college, focus on your own shit.” Hoseok gave up, he heart ached so badly every time Yoongi asked him if he was invisible._

_Am I invisible to you then? Hoseok always thought, blinking his tears away, "_ _You’re such a Blue Hyacinth, Yoongi.”_

_Hoseok got up from sitting on the floor, wiping his tears away with his sleeve and leaving the room for some fresh air._

 

**❀  
**

 

“Jungkook-ah, wake up sleepy head.” Jimin stood beside Jungkook’s bed, patting his arm trying to arouse the boy from his slumber.

“Five more minutes ugh.” Jungkook swatted his arm away softly, whining as he usually does to his mother.

“You really do have a sleeping problem don’t you. This is already the third week of school.” Jimin chuckled, putting the toothbrush in his mouth and brushing his teeth. After the usual daily routines were done, the orange-haired boy walked back to Jungkook’s bed. Jimin grabbed onto Jungkook’s exposed hands (exposed from under the piles of blankets and pillow), pulling him up with all his strength.

“We’re gonna be late, and I refuse to be late,” Jimin grunted, finally getting the other boy to sit up. After Jungkook had taken all the time in the world to get ready, both boys once again ended up running to Mythology class. Professor Kim had already drawn a flower on the board when they entered the hall, she was sitting on her desk waiting for the stream of students to end.

“Professor Kim, are we learning about the Sunflower today?” A male voice sounded from the right side of the hall.

“Yes, why yes we are. And I’m excited. You should be too.” Professor Kim giggled, holding out a marker at the ready, “Tell me about what it symbolizes. Come one, this one is easy.” 

“Happiness!”

“Longevity!” Usually, there’d be more answers but today, the number of answers stopped at two. Professor Kim looked back at the students, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Do you people really have no idea? Especially after our lesson two weeks ago on the Hyacinth?” Professor Kim’s brow furrowed, her arms folding in response to her disappointment.

“Alright, someone tell me what was the story of the Hyacinth again?”

“Apollo and Hyacinth were lovers, Hyacinth died and Apollo turned him into a flower.” This time a female voice from the left of the hall sounded.

“Yes, so now we focus on Apollo. He is causing a lot of shit, basically.” Professor Kim smiled, “But this time, regarding the Sunflower, we have another being that is involved. We have Clytie, the water nymph.”

“Water nymphs, spend the wee hours of the morning above water. When the sun starts to rise, they go back under water. However this one time, Clytie and Leucothea, who was her sister, stayed above the water even as the sun rose. They watched as Apollo rode his golden chariot across the sky, smiling at them.” Professor Kim paused, giving the students time to make notes.

Jungkook’s arm was starting to ache. He wasn’t going to lie, his arms got tired often during Professor Kim’s classes. She was one relentless woman when it came to writing on the board, hence, the merciless writing her students had to do too.

Once she saw most heads looking back up at her, she continued, “Both sisters fell in love with Apollo, no surprise there. However, to prevent Leucothea from ever having Apollo, Clytie told on her to their father. Hence, Leucothea was shut in a cave never to be seen again. So, all by herself, Clytie would come back up to the surface to watch as Apollo rides his golden chariot across the sky.”

“But he never smiled to her anymore. He knew of the terrible deed she’d done to Leucothea. However, Clytie decided to stay on land to continue watching Apollo.” Professor Kim turned back to the board and wrote, “As she’d watched the sun who would never look back at her, she’d slowly turned into a flower. Therefore, becoming a sunflower. The flower we all know today, which will always face the direction of the sun.”

“That’s so sad.” Jimin frowned while whispering to Jungkook, the latter desperately trying to hide his laughter. Jimin was cute, especially when Jungkook would see the slight pout in his expressions.

“Well, now that the story’s been told, let’s get on to the symbolism.” Professor Kim brightened up again, erasing the board for the third time.

“Sunflowers represent happiness. But in Clytie’s position, they’d be representing the sadness in the happy. She was happy to see Apollo every day and that was enough for her. Was it enough to hide her sadness? Of course not.” Professor Kim stopped writing and went back to sit on her desk.

“In Christianity, Sunflowers also represent the unwavering faith (to God). In Chinese culture, sunflowers represent Longevity, Vitality, Intelligence and Happiness.”

 

❀

 

“Class is dismissed! Reports next class, as usual. Have a great day, kids!” Professor Kim was grinning, erasing the board for the final time that lesson.

Jungkook and Jimin grabbed all their stuff, hurrying out the door and into fresh air only to see a tall brunette with a shorter grey-haired boy peering at them from behind. Club activities hadn’t started yet, so both boys were kind of surprised at why they had “stalkers”. The brunette had his hair up neatly, exposing his forehead (making him ten times as attractive to Jungkook) and he was wearing a white hoodie with black sweatpants. The grey-haired boy had a beanie on (as usual), a black hoodie and dark blue skinny jeans. This time, he had round grandfather glasses on too. Surprisingly, Jungkook thought that it looked pretty good on him actually.

“Yah, Jimin-ah!” Hoseok half-shouted, grinning at the orange-haired boy.

“Hoseok! What are you doing here? O-oh, Yoongi is here too. Hello!” Jimin bowed slightly at the sight of Yoongi, beaming at Hoseok.

“Yoongi?” Jungkook said, his voice had a hint of curiosity.

“We’re here to tell you guys that we have a meeting tonight. Meet us at the drama club room at 7pm sharp. If you’re late for even a minute, I’ll chop off your heads.” Yoongi grunted, pulling on his beanie. 

Hoseok chuckled, “He’s kidding. But really, we do have a meeting tonight. See you guys later!” Yoongi pulled on Hoseok’s hoodie, dragging him away from the two boys.

Jungkook and Jimin both waved, watching as Hoseok trip over himself before getting himself together and chasing after Yoongi. 

“J-jungkook, do you wanna head for lunch? We have medicine class after lunch so we should probably eat as much as possible. Medicine class _never_ ends on time, which means more time spent without food.” Jimin frowned, grabbing onto his tummy.

“Hell yeah.” Jungkook immediately turned, grabbing Jimin’s wrist and pulling him along. He looked down as he ran, trying to hide the mild blush that was appearing on his face. He liked Jimin, a lot. The other boy always took care of him and he’d liked it. Then again, sometimes Jimin would seem like he was a kid with his pouts and whines from time to time. Jungkook just didn’t know how to tell the other boy. It was weird, wasn’t it? They’d just met not long ago, but it felt like forever, as cliché as that sounded. But he was alright with keeping it to himself, he wasn’t even sure if the orange head had mutual feelings. It would be better not to risk it, right?

 

❀

 

“Tae, you really don’t need to help me with these. Club activities haven’t even officially begun yet.” Onew smiled, grunting at the weight of the box he was carrying.

“It’s alright, I already told you I’d be stuck to you like glue once I came to this school,” Taehyung grinned his rectangular smile again, pushing another prop back to where it belongs backstage. Once Taehyung was out of sight, Onew could only sigh. He wished Taehyung hadn’t come here. It was great that Taehyung could study here to allow himself a better job scope but coming here to find him, wasn’t that great. 

Onew and Taehyung had known each other since high school. Taehyung confessed like three times already, but Onew rejected them all. The younger boy still didn’t know what giving up was though, considering how he followed him even till college. Thankfully, they both had their own passions for drama, so at least Taehyung wouldn’t be in this club doing useless things.

“Jinki, where do I put this?” Taehyung reappeared holding a bright blue box, calling Onew by his real name. He can’t lie. Every time Taehyung called him by his real name, it left traces of butterflies in his stomach. Pushing those thoughts aside and lowering his head to hide the blush that he was sure had already surfaced, Onew pointed to the right side of the stage.

Onew lifted up the box that he was carrying higher, dragging his feet towards the left side of the hall. 

 _Why and how did this get lighter?_ The older boy was confused at the sudden lightness of the box, he peered over at the other side to see Taehyung supporting the box a little from the bottom.

“Tae, it’s fine, you can go and carry on with the other things.” Onew raised an eyebrow, blowing at his fringe that had fallen across his face. Taehyung made them stop walking, his hand reached out to Onew’s face and brushing aside the light brown locks out of his face and tucking them behind his ear. Taehyung only smiled, lifting the box off of Onew’s grasp on it and walking away with it. It looked weightless in Taehyung’s arms, which probably was true with those arm muscles of his.

“Onew! We’re here.” Yoongi called out, walking ahead of the three other boys who followed him from a distance.

“O-oh, Taehyung!” Jimin waved frantically at the boy who was on stage, struggling to put the heavy box down. It didn’t seem that heavy when Onew carried it, but oh boy was he wrong. Taehyung grinned back at the sound of Jimin’s voice.

All 6 boys gathered on stage and sat in a circle, notebooks sprawled out in the center and a mini speaker stood behind Yoongi. 

“Well, the festival is coming up in a bit and we need to get this done. So, for the three understudies, let us kind of guide you through this so next year’s festival won’t be a problem for you guys.” Onew smiled, his eyes disappearing slightly, “Just saying, but the Dance, Drama and Music composition club people are always together for events. We’re sort of…the elite clubs? Since we’ve been well-established and all.”

“The best-looking people come from our clubs too.” Hoseok ended with a wink towards Jungkook, laughing while he grabbed his notebook from the pile in the center.

“Anyways, the three of us had already decided in advance that this year’s theme would be ‘Homo sine amore vivere nequit’, which translates from French into ‘A man without love cannot live’. It’s kind of a follow-up from last year’s theme which was ‘In at flamma cardi’ which means, ‘In the fire of my Heart’.” Yoongi explained, scribbling some notes in his notebook.

“We also decided that the drama club would do a musical-styled performance, of course, the music composed by our dear friends from Music Composition. And as for dance, they’d be doing a contemporary styled kind of dance and once again, music from-” Onew was cut off by the grey-haired boy, “Us.” Yoongi smirked, leaning back on one arm as it supported him on the floor. Yoongi earned a slight glare from Taehyung.

“But, I didn’t know we had a contemporary dance unit in the Dance club…” Jimin’s voice full of worry, his hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

“Well, you’re the upcoming President- or in dance terms, Dance Captain- of that new unit that was just made. Originally, we only had hip-hop but we decided to bring in another contemporary dance style unit. Since you have experience in it, you shall be the leader.” Hoseok patted Jimin’s head, messing up his hair a little.

“Jungkook, you have tons of music to start working on. It’s going to get busy. We’ll be starting the day after tomorrow. And oh, we have a meeting with two other club leaders. The school started some kind of committee with us and the other two so, yeah. Meeting’s tomorrow at 7pm, venue is the student council meeting room.” Yoongi said looking at Jungkook, fake-punching the boy on the shoulder. 

It was subconscious but as the meeting went on, Yoongi was patting Jimin’s shoulder, messing his hair up and showing all sorts of skinship. Not that it triggered a reaction from Hoseok and/or Jimin. That’d be a lie because it did…and Hoseok chose to ignore it. 

 

❀

 

_“And I’m such a Sunflower for you.” Hoseok ran to the dance room, entering and locking the door behind him. He dropped himself onto the floor and cried his heart out. It was rare when Hoseok would cry, his smile would never leave his face. But, it did this time_ _._

 


	5. This Chrysanthemum might wilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Do take note that in this story, Onew, Seokjin, Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi are year two students while Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook are year one students :)

  _“Seokjin, can you help me with what I missed out during lesson today? I was at the doctor’s for an appointment.” Onew pleaded, giving his sweetest grin to Seokjin and hoping the bespectacled brunette would help him. He hated missing out on Professor Kim’s class._

_“Man, we’re only year ones and you’ve missed a whole week of class already.” Seokjin stated, worried for Onew who disappeared a lot._

_“Oh well, that’s what happens when you get sick often.” Onew smiled bitterly, thinking back about the appointment that just ended a few hours ago. Pushing his thoughts aside, he focused on Seokjin who started talking about classwork._

_“Well, we talked about the Chrysanthemum today.” Seokjin flipped to his notes and continued speaking, “The name literally means ‘Golden Flower’ and they symbolize Optimism and Joy.”_

_I do need some optimism and joy, Onew thought and fake-smiled, nodding along to what Jin was saying._

_“In its oriental origin, people of nobility plant them in their house gardens and since the nobility really liked the Chrysanthemum, people less than the nobility could not grow them. Though now in modern times, having Chrysanthemum in our homes would represent Happiness.” Seokjin pushed up his glasses a little, “Professor Kim did also mention how the Chrysanthemum is often associated with death. Somewhere along the lines of how Chrysanthemums are only allowed to be given at funerals and not for any other occasions.”_

_That is strangely accurate, Onew thought, grinning at Seokjin who was still flipping through his book._

 

**❀  
**

 

“Jinki! Do you want to go get ice cream with me? I heard there’s this 2-for-1 offer going on at this shop near school,” Taehyung carried in a prop treasure box to backstage where Onew was doing stock-taking.

“Hmm, it’s alright you can go ahead.” Onew smiled uneasily, he always hated rejected Taehyung.

“W-why? You don’t like ice cream? Or…do you not like me. Haha.” Taehyung’s smile slowly faded, he walked to the table and set the box down.

“Taehyung, can I just ask you something?” Onew stopped writing and turned to face the younger boy.

“Yes?”

“Why are you always around me? Why haven’t you given up even after I’ve rejected you like three times already.” Onew held the clipboard and pen by his side, his face no longer holding a smile.

“I’ve told you so many times, can’t you understand? I’m in love with you. I can’t just tell myself to stop because it really just doesn’t work that way.” Taehyung bit his lips to prevent his tears from appearing, he felt like he was being ridiculed now.

“I’ve been asking myself the same question for two years already. Why can’t I stop loving you too? We’re never going to have a happy ending, so I should stop. We should stop. But why can’t the feelings go away?” Onew was helpless, the younger boy watched as tears slowly started forming in his eyes.

“D-did you just say that? T-that you love me too?” Taehyung was wide-eyed and in full shock, he wasn’t sure of what he’d just heard.

“Go away, Taehyung! I’m a Chrysanthemum. I hope you know what that means. So go away!” Onew shouted at the orange-haired boy, tears streaming down his face as he dropped the clipboard and he walked off out of the hall.

Onew ran back into his room, slamming the door shut and secretly thanking god that his roommate wasn’t around. The brunette fell onto the floor, crying and shaking as he felt so sorry for the younger boy. It wasn’t that he hated him, it was the complete opposite. From the moment he’d seen Taehyung on the first day of his second year in high school, he’d fallen head over heels for the boy. Who wouldn’t? 

“Y-you shouldn’t have fallen for me. I’m sick and dying. You just don’t know it.” The boy sat upright, breathless from the crying.

 

❀

 

“Minnie, do you want to follow me to a floral shop nearby school?” Jungkook put down his pen after finishing his report, swiveling in his chair to face the orange-haired boy sitting at the opposite end of the room from him.

“Hmm? Are you asking me out?” The orange-haired boy turned to face him, winking once to tease the other boy.

“U-um, n-no? I was just going to stop by there so I w-was just asking if you’d want to go too.” Jungkook was sure he was bright pink, but he’d placed a little faith in himself that he wouldn’t be (he totally was bright pink).

“You’re stuttering pretty badly though.” Jimin smirked, scooting over (while still seated on his chair) to Jungkook’s side, patting his head once in agreement to his “date”.

“Alright, let’s go.” Jungkook jumped up, cheering in excitement. Literally, displaying his inner child right there.

They put on fluffy coats and strolled along the streets that were dimly lit by the malfunctioning streetlamps. It was nearing mid-Autumn and Jungkook wore a long black coat with synthetic fur on the top of his hood. Underneath the coat, he wore his usual white baggy shirt and skinny black jeans with brown boots to match. Jimin was wearing a coat similar to Jungkook’s, just that his was white. The orange-haired boy donned a black graphic tee with black skinny ripped jeans, paired with maroon high tops.

It was getting quite chilly and Jimin wasn’t a big fan of the cold. His hands were squeezing their way into the pockets of the coat, it was still too cold for his liking. The orange-haired boy kept fiddling with his pockets, trying to warm up his hands while Jungkook was trying to not seem like a creep for watching with his peripheral vision but Jimin wasn’t very subtle. Jungkook slowed his pace, turning to Jimin and reaching for the latter’s left hand, interlocking their fingers and putting their interlocked hands into the giant pocket of his own coat. Both boys continued holding hands, though neither of them spoke. Thank god it was a comfortable silence.

After about five more minutes of walking, Jungkook led Jimin into a floral shop that he was very familiar with. 

“Welcom- Jungkook-ah! What are you doing here?” The boys entered the shop, untangling their hands and removing their coats in the warm and cozy shop. Jimin’s eyes widened at the sight of a middle-aged woman (who still looked amazing for her age) who was walking towards them with open arms.

“Who’s this? Your new boyfriend?” The woman who shared the same teeth-y smile as Jungkook grinned, hugging Jungkook and greeting Jimin who was practically a statue when he realised who the lady was.

“M-mum! He’s Jimin, we’re roommates.”

“M-Mrs Jeon! Nice to meet you!” Jimin greeted awkwardly, bowing a 90 degree bow in respect to Jungkook’s mother who stood right in front of him. Jungkook was hiding his laughter at Jimin’s awkward greeting, moving to take Jimin’s coat so he could hang both of their coats up.

“Oh, you’re such a sweet child. C’mon, let’s go get you two warmed up!” Mrs Jeon moved to give Jimin a warm hug, guiding him deeper into the store to take a seat at the table. The store was the typical vintage kind with wooden flooring and pretty floral decorations everywhere.

Jimin sat next to Jungkook elbowing him and biting his lips, “Yah, you didn’t tell me I would be meeting your mother.”

“O-ouch, c’mon my mother isn’t that bad. Why are you so nervous?” Jungkook laughed, grabbing the area Jimin attacked.

“How’s school so far?” Mrs Jeon reappeared with two cups of hot chocolate, placing it in front of the boys before sitting opposite them.

“Oh it’s great, I’m never late because of him.” Jungkook grinned, pointing to the orange-haired boy who blushed at the compliment. 

“O-oh, it’s nothing.” Jimin brushed off the compliment since he didn’t really do much.

“Oh no, you did a great deed. This boy can never wake up on time. Thank you, Jimin.” Mrs Jeon once again displayed her teeth-y grin, grabbing her son by the head once earning a whine from him.

“Hello?”

“O-oh, hang on let me attend to this customer. You boys drink up, yeah?” Mrs Jeon smiled, gesturing to the cups before walking off towards the customer who’d just come into the shop.

“You never told me your family owns a floral boutique.” Jimin took a sip from the glorious hot chocolate, feeling the heat bring his soul back to life from the cold.

“I didn’t, I just showed you.” Jungkook leaned back in the chair, smirking at the memory of Jimin panicking in front of his mother.

“How does this happen though? Like babies choosing their flowers?” Jimin was looking around the shop, still in awe at the floral coziness it brings (was that even a thing?). Jungkook only pointed to the scene behind him, directing Jimin’s attention to his mother and the lady customer who was carrying her baby boy. The baby boy was laughing and giggling, pointing to a flower inside the refrigerator. Mrs Jeon went over to the case and took a bright red rose out, passing it to the baby boy.

“Oh, my baby boy’s a red rose! Oh, mummy is so proud of you baby, well done.” The customer planted a kiss on her baby boy’s cheek, walking with Mrs Jeon to go pay for the flower. Jimin watched in envy, feeling his eyes fill up with tears. He stood up, walking over to where his coat was hanging on the wall and took it off. 

“Jimin, where are you going?” Jungkook called out to Jimin, watching him walk away towards the door.

Jimin put his coat on and turned around to face Mrs Jeon, “Mrs Jeon! Thank you for having me but I’ll need to leave first. I’m so sorry!” The orange haired boy scurried out of the shop and into the cold depressing autumn air.

Jungkook finished up his drink, went to his mum and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek (yes, in front of the customer) and ran out after Jimin with coat in hand. By the time he came out of the shop, Jimin was nowhere to be seen. He took out his phone and dialed Jimin’s number, only to receive an automated response that he’d turned his phone off. Jungkook ran off towards the direction of their school, hoping the other boy was okay.

 

❀

 

Jimin sat by himself on a park bench, quite a distance away from Mrs Jeon’s floral boutique. The boy pulled on his own sleeves, lengthening them to use as handkerchiefs to wipe away his tears that seemed to never end.

“W-why couldn’t you a-accept that I was a red rose just like that mother did for her child?” His cheeks were freezing from the tears that soaked his cheeks and autumn breeze, his stuttering caused by both the cold and the crying. He could hardly breathe from all the crying but he couldn’t stop, it hurt really badly.

 

 

_“I’m home from school! Daddy, I got an award for topping my class!” Little 8 year old Jimin burst through the door, holding up a gold-rimmed certificate for his father to see._

_“Daddy!” Little Jimin was laughing and smiling running towards his father with open arms only for his father to storm away from him. The little boy was so confused, turning around to find his mother walking up the stairs and slamming the door to her room. He continued running to his father, only to be push onto the floor._

_“Get lost you…dirty, disgusting Red.” Mr Park raged, glaring at his son who was now on the floor with tears shimmering in his little eyes._

_“Even your cousins all chose white roses, why can’t you be normal and be like them?” Those words were the only phrases his father would ever say, about how he wasn’t normal choosing a red rose._

 

❀

 

“Jimin! Where’d you go?!” The door opened and Jungkook ran up to the orange haired boy, hugging the boy who had puffy red eyes.

“I’m fine, just got a little emotional.” Jimin laughed, patting the taller boy’s head.

“A-are you sure?” Jungkook pulled away slightly, watching the other boy warily. Jimin brushed his comments aside, assuring Jungkook and refusing to touch on the topic. After he washed up, he hurried the taller boy to sleep, preventing any possible conversation from happening about what had happened. It was a dreamless and exhausting sleep that Jimin had that night. He wished he could spill and tell Jungkook everything. But as always, he worried that Jungkook would hate him. 

Jungkook was rolling in his bed the whole night, he couldn’t sleep. Especially not after seeing Jimin come back with puffy eyes and sniffles. He rolled over to face Jimin at the other side of the room, the clock read 3 A.M.

Jungkook murmured just loud enough for him to be sure Jimin could hear, “Jimin? I don’t know if you’re sleeping yet, but I’m guessing not. I know you’re probably scared about telling me what happened but I just want you to know, I’ll always be here. You can take your time, build up the courage and one day, please tell me about it. I don’t want you to always be crying alone. Goodnight.”

Jungkook smiled slightly, hearing sniffles from the other side of the room and seeing the curled up ball figure of Jimin nod.

 

❀

 

All six of them were in the meeting room, waiting for the two others to arrive. Hoseok was laughing and showing Yoongi a video that the latter was yawning to while Onew and Taehyung were in a heated debate about what their next play should be about.

Moments later, two tall guys walked into the meeting room just as Jimin started yawning due to the lack of good sleep the night before. The taller of the two had lilac coloured hair, styled messily while he wore a black graphic tee with (obnoxiously) red jeans, though Jimin admitted that he did look good in the clothes. The shorter of the two was a brunette and he wore a grey knitted sweater and black jeans, his hair put up nicely and he wore so-called “nerd glasses”. 

Both boys sat at the last two empty seats along the long table and the brunette spoke with a stern expression, “Hello, nice to meet all of you. I’m Seokjin, President of the student union and I’ll be chairing the meeting today as this committee's new chairman. I’m looking forward to working with you all.” 

Seokjin looked at the three year one students and giggled, “I’m just kidding. This meeting isn’t that formal. Lighten up.”  

“Seokjin, they can’t tell that you were joking.” The guy with the lilac hair spoke, introducing himself as Namjoon, president of the Debate club.

“Jin, what do we need to settle during the meeting today?” Onew leaned back in his seat, munching on a sandwich.

“Well, mainly I just need to introduce our committee officially and also to know what you guys are planning for the festival. Also, we need to plan out an outing for our committee. Committee bonding event y’know?” Seokjin pushed up his glasses, grinning at Onew before looking back down at the papers in front of him. 

Yoongi leaned forward, sliding a paper document over to Seokjin, “These are the confirmed details on our side for the festival, and you can look through it and give us any feedback.”

“Alright, thank you. I’ll start off first by welcoming the three understudies. Welcome to our student committee, the school wanted to start up this committee to gather all the leaders of the various clubs so that we can plan out shit together. I’m the Chairman of this committee.” Seokjin grinned, nodding to the three year one students present.

“I’m the vice.” Namjoon smiled, raising his hand slightly. There was a sudden silence before Seokjin pointed at Yoongi and spoke again, “Yoongi’s the secretary.”

Yoongi rolled his eyes, adjusting his beanie and trying to avoid the eyes that were directed onto him.

Onew chuckled breaking the silence, “So, about the committee bonding event, I was thinking about a pension sleepover with a trip to the beach and amusement park. It’ll be free since my family owns the whole place. Any seconds?” 

Hoseok yelled out, “Seconded!” simultaneously with Yoongi, “Second!”


	6. This Primrose will wait

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mild butt-grabbing make out scenes | NO SMUT | But there will be profanities hahaha

It’s almost been 2 months since college started and the autumn foliage is already beginning to disappear completely, welcoming cool winter breezes on its’ way out.

“Yah Taehyung-ah, wanna go to class with us?” Jimin mumbled through the phone, trying to make sure toothpaste wouldn’t drip out of his mouth onto his clothes.

“Yeah sure, I’ll meet you at your room after I grab some food for us. Go wake maknae up or we’ll be late again.” Taehyung pulled his hoodie over his head, yelling into the phone that was on speaker mode and sitting on his bed a distance away.

“Ah-” Jimin dropped his phone, catching it between his elbows somehow and placing it in the dry sink. He took the phone out of the sink and slipped it into his back pocket before continuing his washing up routine. Continuing with his “routine”, he shuffled over to the other boy’s bed and watched him sleep. He’d already woken him up once, but he’d snooze a little longer, as usual. Jimin squat down, reaching his hand out to stroke the boy’s solid black hair out of his eyes and accidentally waking the boy up. To be fair, it wasn’t an accident since he needed the boy to wake up.

“Jungkookie, wake up, we need to go soon.” Jimin smacked the boy’s arm lightly, pulling him up off the bed. Jungkook’s response was a mixture of a muffled whine and yawn.

The door opened, “Breakfast is here.”

 

❀

 

When the three reached the lecture hall, it was surprisingly only half full considering how they were almost late- again. Taehyung walked in first before the other two, picking seats near the back.

“Tae, you okay?” Jimin asked, sitting next to him and occasionally glancing at the black-haired boy who’d collapsed his face onto the table.

“Yeah.” Taehyung put in effort to smile, though his paler-than-usual complexion and dark eye circles gave him away.

“Is it-” Jimin stopped when he noticed Taehyung’s eyes go big, following with a very faint blush in his cheek. He followed his gaze and saw Onew, immediately piecing things together.

“I didn’t expect him to appear in our class.” Taehyung looked down at his notes, refusing to look back up.

“Alright class, today we have a few second-year students joining us for this lecture. In year two, sometimes you go for specific additional lectures with year ones because it’s in your schedule so, it’ll be your turn next year.” Professor hopped onto her table, gesturing at the year two students with a smirk. The group of second-year students shuffled over to the row in the front left of the hall with a light brown haired student leading in front of the group.

“Onew, come out and help me draw a Primrose.” Professor Kim held out a piece of chalk to Onew, flipping the board over to the blackboard side with her other free hand. The boy obliged, walking forward and taking the chalk in his hands proceeding to draw. Taehyung watched him draw, noticing how he wore tight black skinny jeans and a baggy long sleeve white shirt. It made him look even better than he usually did.

Once the Primrose was drawn, he turned around to face the class (where Professor Kim was in the direction of) and handed the chalk back to her. And of course, with him turning around, it resulted in half-whispered gasps.

“Do you think I should go up and talk to him after class?” A hushed exclamation sounded from someone on Taehyung’s right, he turned at glared at the most likely culprit. He knew it was her the moment she went wide-eyed, then looking down in embarrassment.

“Okay, today we talk about this beautiful flower here. The Primrose.” Professor Kim paced back and forth in the front of the hall, thinking about how to phrase her thoughts into words.

“Let’s start with the usual symbolism. Anyone?” 

“Bashfulness!”

“Young love!”

Onew hesitated before calling out, “The sentiment behind young love and also, inconstancy.”

“I see you still remember my lesson, how about you tell us more?” Professor Kim smiled at Onew, asking for a proper elaboration.

Onew sighed and stood up turning to face the rest of the students in the hall, “We’re often faced with the phrase “I can’t live without you” and that is uniquely prevalent in what we called, young love.  Primroses symbolize that sentiment of not being able to live without a partner, which I have just mentioned about, how it comes with young love and all.”

He took a breath, “Essentially, a primrose just means “I can’t live without you”.” Onew finished, looking at Taehyung directly in the eyes.

 

❀

 

“Report on my table, and you may leave. Have a great day ahead!” Professor Kim curtsied, moving towards the second year students and answering their doubts regarding the medicinal properties she’d just gone through in class. Jungkook and Jimin walked down the steps first, followed by Taehyung who was closely behind them.

“Tae? Can I talk to you for a bit?” Onew turned away from the group in front of him, calling out to Taehyung who was almost out the door. Taehyung froze, he could hardly believe that for once, it wasn’t him calling out to Onew.

“You know my dorm room, you can find me there.” Taehyung gripped his book tighter and walked out of the hall, not seeing Onew’s slight smile towards his back.

Taehyung was planted face down on his bed, his heart was ready to jump out of his chest and he didn’t know what to do about it. _He’d probably be coming to me regarding preparation for the festival_ , Taehyung breathed, making weird muffling sounds.

 

_Knock knock_

 

“Oh my fucking god.” Taehyung pushed himself off his bed, cursing and biting his lips.

“Tae?” Onew sounded worried from behind the door. He definitely heard Taehyung but the door wasn’t opening.

“Oh- hang on.” Taehyung snapped out of his panic, walking over to open the door for Onew. Taehyung let the older boy in first, closing the door behind him. 

“You can sit wherever you want, treat this place like your home. Haha.” Taehyung pulled on the sleeves of his hoodie, eyes wandering around to avoid Onew. Onew chuckled, sitting on his bed and patting the space next to him gesturing for Taehyung to join him. Which Taehyung did, reluctantly on the outside but oh so willingly on the inside.

“So, I need to talk to you about something. About us, specifically.” Taehyung’s eyes widened at Onew’s words, the younger boy immediately looking down at his hands trying to hide his face with his fringe. Taehyung didn’t reply, he was too busy trying to calm the storm that was slowly appearing in his chest.

“You’re a primrose. Right?” Onew bravely moved to hold Taehyung’s hand. 

“…Yeah. How’d you know?”

“I guessed. I told you before how I was a Chrysanthemum, right? You know what it stands for. You also know what symbolism I’m referring to, since I mentioned that I’m sick.”

“Death.”

“Yes, death. I’m not going to lie anymore. I’ve liked you for as long as I remember. And I’m sorry, that I’m turning you into a typical primrose, who won’t be able experience the young love you want.” Taehyung looked up at Onew who had tears streaming down his face.

“Move on. I’m serious this time.” Onew smiled through his tears, wiping them away with the back of his free hand. The younger boy pulled away from Onew, standing up walking towards the door and turning to face Onew.

“If that’s what you’re here for, then please leave. I’m tired of having to say the same words again and again.” Taehyung leaned on the wall, folding his arms looking Onew dead in the eye.

The older boy bit his lip, “Why? Why do you keep insisting on waiting for me to miraculously accept you one day?”

“I’m a Primrose, remember? Remember what you said about Primroses? Their sentiments and how they believe in “I can’t live without you”? This Primrose will wait for you for as long as it takes.” Taehyung sighed, “If I were you, I wouldn’t waste any more time.”

“Alright then, can you do me a favor?” Onew stood up, dusting off his pants.

Taehyung raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”

“Don’t blame me for being selfish, I want you to be mine. It’s selfish of me because we both know I’m dying, but _I want you_ so badly.” The older boy took a hesitant step forward.

Taehyung half-ran across the room to where Onew stood, crashing his lips onto Onew’s. The younger boy threw his arms around Onew’s neck, hugging him tightly and feeling the older boy’s hands almost immediately snaking up to his waist. Taehyung smirked and pushed the older boy towards the bed slowly, both of them ending up on the bed with Taehyung on top of Onew.

The younger boy pulled away and whispered, “Any idea how long I’ve waited to be able to do this?” 

“As if I didn’t want to do this.” Onew snorted, rolling his eyes. Taehyung chuckled, moving in once again to attach his lips to the other boy’s. Onew’s hands eventually ended up on the younger boy’s ass with the latter feeling his way up underneath Onew’s shirt. The older boy had a pretty good body, so Taehyung’s hands told him. 

“Yah, Taehyung-ah. It’s time for class! Are you inside? Can’t you answer your phone?” A mixture of knocks and bumps on the door interrupted the “almost-but-not-quite” love-making couple.

Taehyung pulled away from the older boy, both of them catching their breath as the younger of them glared at the door. The orange haired boy got off of Onew, helping the latter off the bed. Onew chuckled, readjusting his shirt and clearing his throat. Taehyung moved towards the door, groaning, “What fucking great timing, Jimin.” 

 

❀

 

It was roughly 10pm and there were only two dancers left in the dance room, the rest had cleared off into the locker room and showers. 

“Yah, Jimin-ah. It’s already December, have you even choreographed anything for the festival dance item?” Hoseok was laid out on the floor snow angel style, perfect for the current season.

“Kind of, I’m working on it. Considering how I did contemporary years ago, it’s not exactly coming back very easily.” Jimin was sprawled out on the floor the same way, just belly side down.

Hoseok looked up at the ceiling, blindly reaching for his phone and bringing it in front of his face only to groan, “Oh my fucking god, we have 20 seconds of rest left.”

“Really? You just had to try out this “almost-no-breaks-in-between” kind of routine?” Jimin turned his head, facing away from Hoseok and silently cursing the hell out of the other boy. They’d been in the dance room since 5pm once classes had ended. Jimin could barely remember the taste of food. 

“20 seconds are up!” Hoseok cried out, forcing himself up and pulling the younger boy up along with him. Once the stereo was set up with the same song they’d been dancing to for the past two hours, the ‘play’ button was pressed.

“Once from the top. 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 1!” Two figures stood outside the door, sharing the tiny glass window on the door and peering in at the two sweaty dancers move their bodies to the song they’d written.

“Yah, my Jungkookie’s voice is good!” Jimin was watching his technique in the mirror, panting and exclaiming once he’d heard Jungkook’s voice at the part they were currently at. 

“Yours?” Hoseok teased, feeling the music with his body and moving it to the flow. He and Jimin had a whole conversation about how well-composed the song was, with Jimin excessively praising Jungkook’s voice, of course.

Jimin felt himself blush all the way to the roots of his hair, giving out a half-hearted laugh when he’d realised that he’d just said. He pushed the thoughts away, his arms stretching out and pulling himself into a spin using the momentum.

 

❀

 

_Just moments ago_

 

“Jungkook-ah, let’s go over to the dance room and see their progress. We’re both brain-blocked and I doubt it’d do our music any good.” Yoongi pushed away from the table, still butt-planted on his seat and pulling off his headphones. He looked towards Jungkook, only to see the boy with bloodshot eyes.

Yoongi went wide-eyed, getting off the chair (which was rare) and walking over to Jungkook, pulling the younger boy off the chair.

“Let’s go.” Yoongi chuckled, pushing the younger boy out the door. 

Both boys shoved their hands into the pockets of their hoodies, slightly shivering from the cold almost-winter breezes. It was 10pm and well, it was cold. They reached the door to the dance room only to hear their song start, Jungkook’s voice sounding out inside the room. They shared the glass window, peering in to watch the two figures in the room side by side, moving their bodies to the flow of the music.

Jungkook rubbed his eyes, watching his roommate move his body in ways he’d never seen before. Every move was powerful, his movements sharp and purposeful. He couldn’t help but notice that Jimin was dripping with sweat, his black sleeveless shirt sticking to his body like a second layer of skin. It pretty much showed off every outline of his body, especially his abs. Jungkook had abs too, but it’s not the same as seeing them on another person. Especially a person that he’d grown much more attracted to the past few months. Jimin made a turn, mouthing some words to Hoseok which he couldn’t decipher. But still, Jungkook wouldn’t mind just staring at his pink plump lips.

The song transitioned into the second verse, now it was Yoongi’s voice that filled the room. Yoongi did help with producing this song, but sometimes you just can’t help being a little startled at hearing your own voice. He knew he liked rapping, but what he didn’t know he liked was watching Hoseok dance to his own voice. Hoseok moved forward, him and Jimin standing in a triangle formation just that they were one man short. Yoongi noticed how Hoseok wasn’t smiling, his face fierce and a little tired. Yoongi wasn’t sure how or why, but he especially liked seeing Hoseok dance oh-so-seductively with his fringe hanging past his eyes and his shirt hanging lower than usual, showing off his very definitive collarbones. Yoongi was feeling conflicted, honestly. He’d seen Hoseok dance before, but this was different. It wasn’t a full physical attraction too (it’s not all just about looks okay, just slightly), it was just a feeling he wasn’t used to feeling whenever he was around Hoseok.

Yoongi brushed his grey fringe to the side, continuing to bear the cold with Jungkook and watching Hoseok’s body move in beat to the rhythm. His footwork was light and swift, as if he was dancing on clouds, though the rest of his body was strong and his movements were firm. Yoongi wanted to deny it but he knew he was a sucker, he couldn’t lie about how at the current moment, he thought Hoseok was hot. Like legitimately, seductive.

The song stopped and Yoongi immediately pushed all the thoughts out of his head, figuring he’d eventually go back to them later. Jungkook looked up at Yoongi, moving to knock once and turn the knob on the door, allowing them both to escape the cold and into the room.

“Aren’t you guys cold out there? You were out there for the full 4 minutes of the song.” Hoseok waved, still panting from the activity and grabbing a towel off the dance beam and slinging it over his shoulder. Yoongi couldn’t help but stare at Hoseok up close, it was a great view. Hoseok frowned, waving at the general direction of Yoongi.

“Earth to Yoon, are you okay? Are you too frozen to speak?” Hoseok exclaimed, walking over to Yoongi and grabbing him by the shoulders. Yoongi snapped out of his trance, properly feeling his hands shivering in his pockets.

“O-oh, um yeah. It was freezing outside.” Yoongi muttered, feeling himself turn red.

“What are you guys even here for?” Jimin wrapped a towel around his neck, wiping his arms with another before attaching himself to Jungkook’s arm with a grin.

“Here to see you.” Jungkook grinned, rubbing his eyes once again at the dryness.

“Are you two alright? You guys look like you’ve gone crazy.” Hoseok put a hand on Yoongi’s forehead, feeling him heat up, “Yah, Min Yoongi, do you have a fever?” 

 _No, I’m just fucking blushing from you being so fucking close. Fuck._ Yoongi gulped, clearing his throat and turning to look away from Hoseok.

“N-no, I’m fine. We were both just out of ideas and the recent drafts haven’t been coming to us easy.” Yoongi sighed, groaning just at the thought of the unfinished audio file sitting in his laptop.

“Yeah, my voice is hoarse from singing too.” Jungkook spoke, chuckling at Jimin’s slight pout from hearing him speak.

“Shush, don’t talk. Come here, I’ll get you a honey drink.” Jimin pulled Jungkook away, leaving Hoseok and Yoongi by themselves.

 

❀

 

“Sit here.” Jimin smiled, sitting Jungkook down on the couch in the locker room as he went to his locker to grab a bottle from his stash of honey drinks.

“How’s practice going?” Jungkook leaned back, closing his eyes.

“Good…how was your eye-fucking session just now?” Jimin smirked, walking back towards Jungkook with a bottle in hand.

“W-what?” Jungkook opened his eyes immediately, choking on his saliva.

“Don’t even deny it. I saw you practically eye-fucking me while Yoongi was eye-fucking Hoseok.” Jimin smirked, poking Jungkook in the rib.

“W-well…” Jungkook turned a dark shade of red, a red he wasn’t even aware that he was capable of. Jimin smiled, moving to straddle Jungkook and looking at him in the eyes. Jungkook went wide-eyed, looking down to avoid Jimin. The orange haired boy reached his hand to pull Jungkook’s chin up, making sure the black haired boy was looking at him.

“You do like me, don’t you?” Jimin chuckled, gripping onto Jungkook’s shirt with this other hand, pulling the boy closer to him. They were basically almost-face-in-face kind of close, and that made Jungkook go in sensory overload. He was so aware of how close the other boy was, his orange hair messy (but sweaty and the hot kind of messy) and he smelled faintly of roses. In situations like this, Jungkook would expect a foul smell to emanate from Jimin, bluntly put. But considering how he’d just danced for 5 hours straight, somehow that wasn’t the case.

“Hmm.” Jungkook was so distracted by his own thoughts that he didn’t notice what Jimin had just said, “Jungkook?”

“W-what?” Jungkook’s face was heating up so much, he was sure Jimin could see the visible effects too.

“I love you.” The orange haired boy pulled Jungkook in, their lips meeting. Jungkook tensed up for a second, before closing his eyes and melting into the kiss, his hands reaching up to Jimin’s waist and pulling the orange-haired closer. Jimin smiled into the kiss, his arms going round to hug Jungkook’s neck. 

Jungkook pulled away for a moment, “I love you too.” And goes right back in for another kiss.

 

❀

 

“Let’s go sit for a bit, my legs are going to break any moment.” Hoseok laughed, leading Yoongi into the corner of the room and planting himself on the floor immediately.

“How was the view?” Hoseok pulled the towel off his shoulder, wiping his neck with it.

“W-what? What view?” Yoongi stuttered, worried that he got caught.

“Jimin. Weren’t you watching him dance? It looked like you were eye-fucking him.” Hoseok teased, giggling. But really, he was in pain on the inside. He wished that Yoongi would look at him for once. Was it so difficult?

“I wasn’t looking at him?” Yoongi frowned, his forehead wrinkling.

“Come on, we’ve been friends for so long. Just admit it.” Hoseok playfully punched his shoulder.

“What? I wasn’t. I really wasn’t.” Yoongi felt slight desperation creeping up to him. Why wouldn’t Hoseok believe him?

Hoseok sighed, laughing emptily, “I don’t see why you’d want to deny it. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Yoongi stood up and yelled, “What the fuck? I wasn’t staring at him. Can’t you understand what I’m saying?!” His patience was running out, the fatigue he was feeling from staring at his laptop the whole day didn’t help with controlling his temper either. Hoseok was genuinely shocked by the sudden outburst considering how Yoongi wasn’t the kind to lose his temper easily. 

“Y-Yoongi-ah, calm down. Are you alright?”

“Oh yeah. I’m great. You want to know who, right? Who I was “eye-fucking”? Yeah, I was eye-fucking you, you little shit.” Yoongi rolled his eyes, sarcasm leaking from his words. He turned on his heel, walking straight out of the door. Once he turned the corner and out of sight of the dance room, he immediately shoved his hands back in the pockets of his hoodie. He forgot it was cold outside. He also temporarily forgot that Hoseok was his roommate and they were bound to meet in a bit.


	7. Forget-Me-Not, will you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter suggests the theme of suicide. If you're uncomfortable with reading, do skip the section with the '**' sign.

“Hello everyone, it’s been 2 months since our first meeting. May I have a progress update from every team for their respective items?” Seokjin leaned back in his chair, nudging Namjoon with his elbow to get him to start taking minutes for the current meeting.

“We’ll start first since whatever we come up with will affect the rest of the teams,” Yoongi spoke up, pulling his laptop out of his bag.

“So, we have completed our official music track list for the main event/exhibition area in the hall. Also, we’ve confirmed one song each, for the Drama club and the Hip hop dance unit. We are left with fine-tuning the last piece for the contemporary dance unit as well as two more minor pieces for the drama club.” Yoongi glanced through his list of audio files, “Now, we’re only left with confirming the locations of where the speakers and audio devices will be set up.”

“Alright, that sounds good. Next?” Seokjin nodded, biting his lips in concentration.

“We’ve completed the rough choreography for both dances- contemporary and hip hop. Now, we just need to clean up on technique and practice with the official audio files from Yoongi and Jungkook and we’re good to go.” Hoseok gave a thumbs up, winking at Yoongi, who reciprocated with the rolling of his eyes.

“Onew? How about your side?”

Onew smiled at Taehyung, “Oh, we’re good. The scripts have been confirmed, cast and crew- and props- are all ready to go. We’ll begin our first proper rehearsal tomorrow.”

“Okay, that’s great.” Seokjin grinned, “On our side, the student council will be ready with usher duties and we will also help with looking for sponsors. Oh and if any assistance is required at the booth areas, we’ll be there.”

Namjoon looked up from his laptop, “The debate and academic clubs are also readying the logistics and set up. We will liaise with the student council for publicity, as well.”

“Okay, we’re good to go. Everyone, keep up the good work and we should be ready by March. The festival has been confirmed to be within the first week of April- spring season. So, let’s look forward to it.” Seokjin grinned, closing his notebook.

 

❀

 

“Namjoon, not going?” Seokjin and Namjoon were the last two in the meeting room, with Namjoon staring blankly at his notebook.

“O-oh, um I’ll be leaving in a bit. You can head out first.” Namjoon smiled, gesturing at Seokjin to go ahead.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Namjoon smiled, watching Seokjin wave at him once and walking out of the room.

The lilac-haired boy ran his hand through his hair, sighing and leaning his head back onto the chair, facing the ceiling. He’d had a rough week so far, from having to complete a very important report to conducting a workshop and even being graded for a presentation on his project. He was tired, as people usually got after feeling immense stress. Yet, the words from his parents rang out very loudly in his head every day since he started college lessons over a year ago.

He got off the chair, picking up his notebook to see a purple note fall out of it. He frowned, bending down to pick it up, unfolding it and reading its’ contents.

 

_I like you. Will you accept my confession?_

 

“This isn’t the handwriting of Jinnie. So, no.” Namjoon sighed, crushing the note in his hand and throwing it into the bin by the wall. The lilac-haired boy stuffed his notebook and laptop into his hand carry bag, leaving the room and heading straight to the roof.

The rooftop had become his personal space, he’d come here almost every day just to unwind. Some days he’d even slept here the whole night, with him waking up at 3am to see Seokjin frantically trying to wake him up. He understood how Seokjin, who was his roommate, would worry about him so much when he never returned to their room. He liked it, in fact. Seokjin was the only one who’d care about him. He appreciated it, really.

The lilac-haired boy sat at his usual spot under the shade and reached into his bag, pulling out a zip-lock bag that had one single blue petal in it. He delicately took the petal out, smiling bitterly at it.

 

❀

 

_“Mum, what do you think about me entering Floral Academy? I was thinking about the medicine specialization they offer.” Namjoon held out the school brochure to his mother, waiting for her response._

_“I think it’s great that you’re pushing yourself, Namjoon. Top the school, understand?” Mrs Kim nodded, not even glancing at the brochure or her son._

_Namjoon felt uneasy, “But you haven’t even taken a look at this.”_

_“I don’t need to, honey. Floral Academy is an elite school, I’m sure you’ll top your current school and earn a scholarship for that Academy. And then, you’ll top the Academy too, right?” Mrs Kim grinned at her son, patting his shoulder and walking off._

_“Mum! Can I ask you one more thing?”_

_“Yes, honey? Make it quick, I need to prepare dinner.” Mrs Kim turned back around to face her son._

_“I want to join the music composition club in Floral Academy. Eventually, I want to make music too. Wouldn’t that be cool?” Namjoon grinned, only to be shot down by his mother._

_“Sure. Join that filthy club, if you want to continue being the disappointment that you already are.”_

_-On graduation day-_

_“I would like to thank my parents, friends, teachers and everyone who’s worked hard together along with me. We made it.” Namjoon spoke as valedictorian of his school, raising his certificate above his head as cheers erupted from the crowd in front of him. As he came down from the stage, he walked over to his parents and sat with them as the ceremony came to a close. Once it was officially closed, Mr and Mrs Kim and their son walked out to the car, all getting in without a word._

_“So, Namjoon. How’s your graduating GPA?” Mr Kim sat in the driver’s seat, looking at his son from the reflection of the mirror._

_“I scored a perfect 4.0.” Namjoon smiled, removing his graduation gown._

_“How many distinctions?” Mrs Kim asked, turning to look at the boy._

_“U-um, I scored A with distinctions for 7 out of 8 subjects. I scored an A+ for the last one.” Namjoon avoided eye contact with his mother, turning to fold his gown._

_“You’re a disappointment. I expected much more from you.” Mr Kim huffed in rage, immediately driving out of the parking lot. The ride home was silent, Namjoon awkwardly shifting in his seat as his father’s words replayed in his head relentlessly. He was a disappointment._

_The car pulled to a stop in the garage, all three of them heading into the house. The moment the door was closed, Mr Kim’s rage begun._

_“How could you not score perfect distinctions? We trusted you and you didn’t deliver. How can we trust you from now on?!” Mr Kim’s voice could probably be heard a mile away, not that he cared though._

_“D-dad, I already scored a perfect GPA. Plus, I’m valedictorian AND I earned the scholarship to Floral Academy too. Isn’t that good enough?” Namjoon pleaded desperately, his voice no louder than a squeak. Namjoon regretted speaking up the moment he saw the rage build up in his father’s eyes. He wasn’t scared of the man, but he hated it. He’d seen the same rage in those same eyes ever since he could walk as a child._

_“GO TO YOUR ROOM AND REFLECT ON YOURSELF. YOU’RE A DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY.” Those were the last words Namjoon heard before he grabbed his belongings and heading straight to his room with tears burning in his eyes. He slammed the door shut, locking it and throwing his things onto the floor, forming a pile._

_Isn’t this enough? What more do you want? Namjoon blinked the tears out of his eyes, walking towards his closet and pulling out his flower jar. He moved over to his bed and sat down, holding the jar in his hands and staring at the blue flowers that sat so delicately inside. Tears fell continuously onto the jar as he stared at it, thinking back to every single insult his father made that he’d held in his heart._

 

_**Skip this following section if uncomfortable**_

 

_He wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, sniffling and trying to pull up the courage from his pathetic self. He opened the jar, hand reaching into the jar and pulling out his bunch of Forget-Me-Nots. He smiled, running his fingertips over the soft blue petals. Once he’d made up his mind, there was no going back. He can't deny the fact that he was curious as to what would happen if he pulled off a petal from his flowers. He'd been contemplating the action since forever._

_“What’s the point of living if you don’t live doing what you love?” He pulled one petal off the flower and he blacked out, collapsing and knocking out cold on the floor. His jar slipped from his grip and smashed onto the ground, shattering into many shards and his remaining flowers sat on his hand that was sprawled out onto the floor._

 

_**End of section**_

 

_❀  
_

Namjoon shuddered, remembering how he’d fallen into a month-long coma after he pulled out that one petal. He knew the flower was important, but he never realised how extremely important it was. He stared at the petal in his hand and turned it back and forth in his hand, tears forming in his eyes.

 

❀

 

“Forget-Me-Nots. They are beautiful blue flowers that signify remembrance, loneliness and true and undying love.” Professor Kim hopped onto her desk once again sitting on it, wearing a slight frown on her face, “Forget-Me-Nots are very…sentimental and lonely people. I personally prefer to not see a person as their flower whenever I can. I hope for people to have experiences unique to them, not their flower. But even though I haven’t met many Forget-Me-Nots, they’ve all happened to go through similar experiences. They’re lonely. If you do meet a Forget-Me-Not, do appreciate them and give them some love. Please, do not forget them. As the name suggests.”

“Anyways, this flower is represented by a certain myth. One that speaks of two lovers, a man and a woman in this case. They were walking along the Danube river- it’s somewhere in Europe, for your information- and they spotted bright blue flowers. As the man went to pick a few of those flowers for his love, he was swept away by the river and as he floated away, he told her to never forget him.” Professor Kim smiled, “Hence, the name, Forget-Me-Not.”

Jungkook leant back against his chair, glancing occasionally at Jimin who would return a smile whenever he caught his eyes.

 

❀

 

“Taehyung-ah, good job today,” Onew grinned, patting the orange haired boy on the shoulder before walking in the opposite direction to carry one of the heavier props back to where it belonged backstage.

“Jinki-ah, can I ask you something? After we’re done moving the stuff and everyone leaves, of course.” Taehyung panted slightly, struggling to keep the prop in his hold since it was the heaviest item they had.

“Of course, we’re almost done anyways.” Onew chuckled, calling out from backstage. In no time, the stage was cleared and all the club members- except Onew and Taehyung- had left the hall. Onew walked back onto the stage, immediately lying down in the middle of the stage and calling out to Taehyung, asking him to join him there. Which the orange haired boy gladly agreed to.

“Jinki. Can I ask you the question now?” Taehyung sat cross-legged next to the boy who was lying on the ground.

“Of course, fire away.” The orange haired boy paused for a moment, gathering the very little courage he had before speaking.

“…how are you ill?” Taehyung shut his eyes, not anticipating the response that he knew would break his heart.

“I…I’m sick in the heart and well, practically all over my body.” Onew sat up, joining Taehyung in a cross-legged position but his head tilting downwards facing away from Taehyung. Taehyung felt the burning of tears in the back of his eyes, but he held it in and waited for the other boy to continue speaking.

“I have an Atrial Septal Defect. If simply put, I have a hole in my heart.” Onew looked at the younger boy with a blank expression, “I’ve had almost 10 surgeries in my lifetime trying to repair it. But every time I go through the same surgery, it doesn’t work and the hole just reappears again. Doctors say that it shouldn’t be that way, but I’m the only case in this world that’s happening this way.”

Taehyung bit his lips so hard he was sure it’d turn white, he wasn’t sure but he thought he’d tasted blood too. The orange haired boy looked up at Onew, studying the older boy’s expression as both boys went silent.

“Could you stand up, for a moment?” Taehyung finally said, breaking the silence. Onew frowned, forehead wrinkles appearing but he did what the boy asked. The moment both boys were standing up, Taehyung took a step closer to the brunette and pulled him into an embrace. The younger boy burying his head into Onew’s shoulder as Onew’s hands went up to encircle his slim waist.

“Hey there, don’t get all sad. Doctors said that I have a 30% chance of living till old age since I’ve already gotten this far.” The brunette laughed, trying to rid the atmosphere of its sadness.

“Let me follow you to all your doctor visits from now on, okay? We’ll hold onto that 30% that you have.” Taehyung pulled away slightly before joining his lips with the older boy’s, their kiss tasting slightly saltier this time.


	8. Orchids’ heal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter has mildly sexual themes and vulgarities. Skip the indicated section if uncomfortable with reading. 
> 
> //Also, the chapters after this will be out later since I'm really busy these few weeks with exams and school events and I don't want to put out chapters I know I won't be proud of. So, I'm really sorry for the wait that'll be soon to come!! :o //

Pres, where are you going?” One of the executive committee members of the student council stood up, frantic at the fact that Seokjin, the most patient President ever, would walk out on them in the middle of the meeting.

“Out. You guys are driving me crazy. I’ll be back in 30 minutes and you all better get a grip of yourselves and come to a consensus on the plan.” Seokjin huffed in rage, walking out of the meeting room and slamming the door shut behind him.

Seokjin sighed, having his own monologue, “Okay, Seokjin. Let’s calm down and head to the roof for a breather.” The brunette took long strides, quickly ascending the stairs to reach the roof. When he reached the door that led to the roof, he froze upon hearing cries past the door he was about to open.

“I hate this.” It was an anguished cry, but the voice was familiar to the ears of Seokjin. He took a deep breath, moving one step forward to reach the doorknob, slowly opening the door and revealing the owner of the voice. It was exactly who he thought it’d be.

The lilac-haired boy sat near the edge of the roof, back-facing Seokjin and knees pulled up to his chest with his head resting on his knees. His cries diminished into sobs but Seokjin still knew the pain Namjoon was going through. Seokjin walked as softly as he could, kneeling down behind the curled up figure and gently wrapping his arms around the crying boy. Namjoon stiffened at the contact, melting into Seokjin’s embrace when he caught hold of Seokjin’s familiar scent.

“Namjoon, just cry it out. I’m here.” Namjoon turned towards Seokjin, releasing his hold of his knees to free his arms to put them around Seokjin’s waist. The lilac-haired boy was still sobbing when he pulled Seokjin closer, his neck buried in the crook of the brunette’s neck.

“Don’t think about all the stuff your parents say. You deserve the best and you should never allow those harsh words to affect you in any way because you’re amazing and you’re beautiful and you deserve so much more than what you’re getting.” Seokjin felt the burn behind his eyes as he spoke, hugging the sobbing boy to him tightly. It was subconscious, but Seokjin pulled away slightly to look at Namjoon in the eyes, moving in to plant a kiss on the latter’s forehead. When both boys realised what had happened, a lot of blushing happened between them though their embrace was not broken. 

After a few moments of silence, Namjoon spoke up, “Orchids really do heal, don’t they? Like what you do for me.”

“This orchid will only heal you.” Seokjin moved a hand up to stroke Namjoon’s silky lilac hair, cursing at himself for his own cheesy comment, though he meant every word of it. 

 

❀

 

_-_ _A year ago_ _-_

 

_“Yah Namjoon-ah, can you hurry up?” Seokjin had his hands on his hips, rolling his eyes at Namjoon who was still making changes to his report that was to be handed up during the first lesson of the day._

_“Mm…and….done!” Namjoon shot up off his chair, knocking his chair over in the process._

_“Y-yah! Be careful! Let’s go NOW.” Seokjin grabbed Namjoon and pulled him out of the room._

_It was Professor Kim’s lesson first that day and thankfully they weren’t late, or Seokjin would’ve slaughtered Namjoon and his perfectionist personality (in regards to editing his report like five times over)._

_“Namjoon, Seokjin, almost late are we?” Professor eyed them cheekily, waving them off to go to their usual seats in the front._

_“Yeah. All because of_ **_someone_ ** _.” Seokjin gritted his teeth, elbowing Namjoon and earning a yelp from the latter._

_“Alright, can someone come up here and draw an Orchid for me?” Professor Kim was searching through the piles on her desk, digging a chalk out from between two stacks of papers. She looked back to see Seokjin’s hand in the air._

_Professor Kim grinned, gesturing for him to come up front and handing him the chalk. As he drew, the whole lecture hall was filled with gasps and murmuring. It wasn’t every day when a handsome man could draw as beautifully as Seokjin did, and with great ease too. Seokjin loved sketching and making doodles, which was why Namjoon loved to borrow his notes from time to time. It made the bleak future of studying content seem a bit livelier._

_When he was done, he placed the chalk back in Professor Kim’s hand and walked back to his seat and immediately feeling Namjoon’s elbow dig into his rib, earning a half-yelp from Seokjin._

_“What was that for?!” Seokjin hissed, rubbing at his sides and smacking Namjoon with the back of his hand._

_“Your back view was really nice to look at. I’ve always loved looking at your shoulder, hmm?” Namjoon said bluntly, eyes widening the moment he heard himself speak. He never meant to say his thoughts out loud, but at least, it earned a deep red blush from Seokjin and he could take comfort in that._

_“Orchids come in varieties of colours but I’ll only touch on pink and purple today,” Professor mumbled, admiring Seokjin’s masterpiece (it really was just a sketch though)._

_“Pinks symbolize healing. Which relates to tenderness, connection, friendship and even, love. If you ever find your own Orchid, I’ll let you know now that you better hold onto them tight. It’s rare that people can find partners that they can trust and have that special connection with. In a way, just having their presence heals you.” Professor grinned, slyly winking at Namjoon and gesturing to Seokjin, once again bringing out a deep blush onto the Seokjin’s cheeks, “Purples are different, slightly. They symbolize authority and they express their power in elegant ways to their own circle.”_

_Seokjin smiled down at his notes, slowly colouring in the orchid he’d drawn on the particular page. The petals had a dark pink towards the inside of the flower, with a gradual melt into purple on the edges of the petals. That’s exactly what Seokjin’s flower was, he was pink and purple at the same time._

 

❀

 

The music composition club had really pushed themselves the week after the second committee meeting. They needed to complete their work fast, but it just wasn’t happening. Yoongi had resorted to drinking in the club room and Jungkook didn’t know how to handle a drunk Yoongi.

“H-hoseok? I need help.” Jungkook half-yelled into his phone, earning a whine from Hoseok who was on the other end of the line.

“What? What’s going on?” Hoseok spoke, hearing someone slurring and hiccupping in the background.

“It’s Yoongi! He’s drunk, and he’s acting all weird and shit. Could you PLEASE come and help me?!” Jungkook really yelled into the phone this time as he’d dropped it onto his table, rushing over to Yoongi who was about to smash his laptop with a silver metal baseball bat.

“Y-yah! Yoongi!”

“Jungkook?!” Hoseok shouted, slightly panicking at the thought of Yoongi, who had really weird tendencies when he was drunk.

“HOSEOK, JUST GET OVER HERE NOW. PLEASE.” The line went dead, earning a sigh from Hoseok who got up from the floor of the dance room.

“Jimin, I don’t think I’ll be coming back in here, please lock up the room yeah? Thanks.” Hoseok threw the key to Jimin who’d caught it in his right hand, waving to Hoseok as the older boy bolted out of the room after slipping on a hoodie.

“Yoongi is crazy. I’m never letting a beer bottle near his sight again when I’m around him.” Jungkook shuddered at the thought, watching as Yoongi was clinging onto Hoseok.

“Hoseokkie? Hobi-ah, how’ve you been?” Hoseok pulled Yoongi onto his back, putting him into a piggyback position. The grey haired boy was all smiley, one hand running through the brunette’s slightly damp hair and the other still holding onto a beer bottle.

“Thanks, Jungkook. Oh and you should go over to the dance room. Jimin’s there, please make sure he doesn’t exhaust himself and please, make sure he doesn’t collapse or anything.” Hoseok nodded, huffing as he pulled Yoongi higher up onto his shoulders. Jungkook nodded, waving at Hoseok who was carrying Yoongi back towards the dormitory block.

 

❀

 

 _-the other night_ _,_ _after the eye-fucking-_

 

_“Fucking hell, that bitch of a brunette. He was hot, but what the actual fuck.” Yoongi cursed, slamming the door shut behind him. He moved to the nearest wall, turning on the heater and stripping his hoodie off as he pulled on a white baggy shirt. He went to the bathroom and washed up, running his hand through his hair and sighing as he looked at his own reflection in the mirror. He got out and headed straight to bed, pulling his covers over his head and burying his face in pillows. He liked sleeping with at least three pillows around him._

_By the time the brunette ended his dance practice and came back into the room, it was already 1.30 in the morning and the grey haired boy was softly snoring in his pile of pillows. He walked over to his bed and threw his phone onto his pillow, turning to glance at Yoongi._

 

_“Yeah, I was eye-fucking you, you little shit.”_

 

_The grey haired boy’s words kept ringing in Hoseok’s head. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Yoongi watching him. Not Jimin, but him. He decided to brush the thoughts away, deciding to think of them as words that were said on impulse. Hoseok didn’t have the courage to believe that they were really meant for him. Maybe it was a cowardly defensive move, but he didn’t want to hurt anymore. Especially if he was the only one to keep thinking about it._

_For the whole of the next week, both boys never spoke about that incident. They hardly spoke at all, in fact. When they did, it was only because they had to communicate over matters regarding either their studies or their festival preparations._

 

❀

 

“You really should stop drinking, you know your limit.” Hoseok held onto Yoongi’s hand that was occupied with a beer bottle.

“I-I know. Let go of me.” Yoongi whined, slapping Hoseok’s hand away rather gently. Hoseok didn’t want Yoongi to get drunk again. Every time he does, he goes into a series of self-pity rants about how he wants Jimin and how the latter doesn’t even notice him.

Hoseok sighed, leaving Yoongi to lie down in the middle of their room and moving to go to the bathroom to take a shower. He’d just had dance practice, which he left halfway from to bring Yoongi back here. He was exhausted, and sweaty. Which he hated the sticky feeling of. He grabbed a pair of sweats and a towel, heading into the bathroom. His bath consisted of furious scrubbing and soaping. There was also mild traces of hair tugging, which he knew would one day cause him to go bald. He brushed his teeth before exited the bathroom only to see Yoongi who had finished another half-bottle within the 5 minutes that he’d taken to shower.

“What the fuck, Yoongi? If you get a hangover tomorrow, you’d better not whine to me and expect me to skip class just to attend to you.” Hoseok bent down to look at Yoongi who was still on the floor, his eyes widening the moment he felt Yoongi hook one hand around his neck and pulling him close to the ground- with Yoongi in between the ground and Hoseok, of course.

“O-oh, Seok-ahhh you’re not wearing a shirt?” Yoongi giggled, using his other arm to properly hug Hoseok’s neck. The latter deciding to use the chance to pull Yoongi off the ground, carrying him bridal style before dumping him on the bed.

“You’re drunk, Min Yoongi.” Hoseok rolled his eyes, grabbing the beer bottle from Yoongi and walking away only to have Yoongi pulled on his wrist and holding him back.

“Wha-” Hoseok started, but was cut off by Yoongi.

“Y-you were really s-sexy that day, yknoww? You looked g-greatttttt. Y-you look good s-shirtless now too!” Yoongi smiled lazily, “I-it wasn’t even like n-normal sexy…it was l-like I was really a-attracted to y-you. Yeah?!”

Hoseok froze at his words, unable to even turn around to face the drunk boy.

Yoongi’s words were mixture of actual words, hiccups and slurs. “I w-was thinking a-about u-us, these few d-dayssss. E-every time I see you, I f-feel these butterflies? Are they butterflies? Or flies? Or moths? B-but I feel them in here! It feels GOOD!” The drunk boy pointed to his tummy with his free hand.

“A-and every time I drink and g-get drunk like n-now,” Yoongi murmured, hiccupping once and continuing, “Y-you care for m-me.”

“Hoseok, I l-like…NO! DON’T SAY J-JIMIN! I…like…you.” Hoseok felt Yoongi pull him towards the bed, resulting in Hoseok falling onto Yoongi. Somehow, Yoongi had the strength to flip their positions and pin Hoseok down onto the bed.

 

**Skip this following section if uncomfortable**

 

“Y-Yoongi-ah!” Hoseok was silenced when Yoongi smashed their lips together, the sober of the two going wide-eyed. Hoseok felt himself slowly close his eyes, melting into the kiss. He tasted the alcohol in Yoongi’s mouth but it didn’t matter, he’d been wishing for this to happen for so long. However, he immediately snapped out of it the moment he felt Yoongi straddle him, grinding into his crotch.

He stopped Yoongi, getting out of the bed and putting Yoongi into a position where he could lay comfortably. He stepped away to see that the grey haired boy had completely passed out (thankfully without puking on himself). Hoseok was still fidgety from what had just happened, him being completely aware of the bulge in his own pants. 

“Ah Yoongi. You know exactly how to fuck with me, even when you’re drunk. And that’s not fair…knowing my weakness when I don’t know yours.” Hoseok sighed. He stopped, not because he didn’t like it. He just didn’t want to take advantage of Yoongi who was drunk. It wouldn’t be fair, especially if it wasn’t a conscious decision made by the grey haired boy himself. He sighed, running his hand through his hair as he went back into the bathroom to finish off what Yoongi had started. Though this time, he didn’t feel as guilty as compared to other times when he imagined the grey haired boy helping him get off.

 

**End of section**

 

For the whole night, Yoongi’s words wouldn’t leave his head, _“I…like…you.”_

 

❀

 

Jungkook shoved one hand into his pocket, using the other to lock up the clubroom and shoving it back into his pocket. He pulled on his hood, taking a detour route to the dance room. Staying in that room and facing the same laptop screen for 5 hours continuously wasn’t a good idea.

As he got closer to the dance room, he heard the familiar tune of his and Yoongi’s song and his singing voice getting louder, sounding in the dance room. He stood by the door, peeking in and watching a familiar orange haired boy moving to the music. He loved watching Jimin dance. Lucky for him, he’d gotten to see Jimin dance a lot this past week from his and Yoongi’s visits to the dance room. 

The orange haired boy spun around, hopping into his next position and going into the second part of the dance for the second verse of the song. Jungkook always thanked the heavens for this view of Jimin, where the latter was all sweaty and wearing sleeveless shirts that stuck to him. He swore he wasn’t a pervert, it’s just that the orange haired boy looked that good.

Jimin stopped in his ending pose, swiveling around to face the door and smiling at Jungkook who was still outside freezing in the cold. He gestured for the other boy to come in as he walked towards the stereo and changed it to a slower ballad. Jungkook recognized it as one of the songs Jimin kept on replay these few days.

“How’s Yoongi?” The shorter boy took a sip out of his bottle, planting his butt on the floor and gesturing for Jungkook to join him, which he did.

“Drunk. Spouting gibberish. Hoseok looked pissed while carrying him back to the dorm.” Jungkook chuckled, lying down on the floor and closing his eyes.

“Hmm, well. He must’ve seen this side of Yoongi a lot.” Jimin giggled, pushing himself off his seat on the floor to hover over Jungkook, planting a kiss on the boy’s lips.

“I’ll be back with a honey drink for you babe, you look exhausted.” Jimin grinned, grunting as he got off the floor and heading into the locker room. Jungkook grinned and yelled a _thank you_ after him, getting off the floor too. He walked over to the stereo, turning the volume up a little and making his way back to his original spot. From hearing Jimin replay this song so often and watching its music video so many times, Jungkook could almost memorize its dance already.

His memories of dance classes slowly came back, his muscles tingly and feeling the need to move them in ways he’d done before. Jungkook closed his eyes, his feet moving under him and his arms stretching out to feel the movement. He wasn’t fully sure of the moves to the dance in the music video so he decided to stray from it and improvise. His body moving to the slow beat of the song while his cardiac muscles picking up the pace in reaction to the sudden movements he was putting his body through and also, the adrenaline he felt from dancing after god knows how long.

“Y-you can dance?” Jungkook froze, his eyes flying open and immediately catching the stare of his boyfriend. The black haired boy gave a nervous laugh and planted himself back on the floor.

“Stand up.” The shorter boy had a serious expression. He walked towards the stereo and put on a playlist of ballads- the sexy kind- and dropped the bottle of honey on the couch next the stereo before making his way back to Jungkook. 

“A-am I in trouble?” Jungkook watched the other boy swiftly move around the room, walking towards the lights and dimming the room before finally making his way towards Jungkook.

“No, but dance with me.” 

Jimin pulled him off the floor, putting his arms around Jungkook’s neck. Their bodies practically glued together, arms on each other and eyes gazing right into the other’s eyes. It didn’t take long for Jimin to get Jungkook back into momentum and they were both moving in time with each other. They never spoke about what to dance to and how to dance, but they just did. They separated, each in their own space, watching the other dance before moving towards each other again.

Their bodies’ languid but smooth, movements to the music rolling off their bodies but their eyes showed the passion they had. Both for dance and for each other, as cheesy as it sounds. As the song slowed towards the end and they moved gradually close to each other, they ended up in an embrace on the floor.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you could dance?” Jimin spoke, slightly breathless but still smiling. The younger boy brushed Jimin’s orange locks out of his eyes, draping his arm over Jimin.

“I don’t know. But I’m glad you found out I could.” Jungkook was grinning, thinking back to how amazing it felt to dance with Jimin. It wasn’t every day you got to dance with your partner to sexy music.

“Can I ask you for a favor?” The orange haired boy looked up into the other boy’s dark brown orbs.

“Of course.”

“Could you dance with me more often?” Jimin was hopeful. After seeing his boyfriend dance the way he did, yeah, he was going to make sure Jungkook never stopped. It was a bonus to be able to see Jungkook covered in sweat.

“I’d love to.” Jungkook shifted closer, giving Jimin a peck on the tip of his nose.


	9. "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm so sorry for the hiatus but I'm back for a bit. I do have a lot of school work to do, especially with finals coming up in a month or so, so I apologise if I don't update often enough! ;-; Also, this hasn't been properly edited so yas I'M SORRY *hides*

“How are you doing, Jinki?” The doctor donned her white lab coat, a stethoscope slung around her neck and her hair tied up neatly into a french braid. Onew shifted in his seat, eyes shifty as he was back into the place he was most uncomfortable at.

“I’m the same. As usual.” He refused to say the typical “I’m fine” or “I’m good” because he knew he wasn’t. There were only two people in that room and both of them knew he wasn’t fine.

“Well, this time round I guess I have slightly better news for you.” Dr Park had a slight smile, it had just a hint of pity. Or at least it seemed like pity. Onew played with his phone in his hand, refusing to look at Dr Park in the eyes.

“Unfortunately, the hole in the septum of your heart still remains. However, there does seem to be a slight improvement in the oxygen saturation in your blood and there are also signs of the hole being slightly smaller than what we’ve observed before.” Dr Park smiled, it seemed genuine this time.

“You’re not kidding, right?” Onew whispered, still taken aback by her words. He’d never received good news, ever.

“Of course not! There is improvement, slight improvement but it’s still a good sign.”

Taehyung half-ran to Onew the moment he came out of the doctor’s office, immediately lacing their hands together tightly. The latter pulling the younger boy along with him, leaving the clinic. Taehyung looked earnestly at the older boy, only to see Onew’s ambiguous expression. Onew didn’t say anything but smiled slightly, leading the way towards his favourite café as both boys walked along the pavement. Taehyung shivered slightly as the winter breeze brushed past the back of his neck.

“Tell me what happened?” The orange-haired boy spoke, gripping onto the older boy’s hand tighter.

“Well, the doctor didn’t really say much. She said that the hole in my heart is getting smaller, but it’s still there and there’s no denying that it’s bad. It might kill me anytime.” Onew said with a smile, he didn’t like speaking about his health. It’d always get depressing very easily.

“That’s great! That it’s getting smaller, I mean. Not about how dangerous it is.” Taehyung beamed at the brunette, “I’m with you all the way. Okay?” Onew smiled back, trying his very best to believe Taehyung. It wasn’t easy considering how every cell in his body was striving to prove to him the opposite. He was going to die, and he knew it.

After an iced Americano and a warm caramel macchiato, Taehyung walked Onew back to his dorm, the orange-haired boy leaving after giving Onew a kiss on the lips and a slap on the butt. Onew smiled, closing his door and walking back to his bed. He reached for the door to his closet, opening the compartment where his flower rested in.

He took the jar out, observing the yellow flower for any changes. Of course, there were changes. The signs of wilting were more obvious than before, some petals browning lightly at the edges. If one were to take a glance, they wouldn’t notice it, but for Onew, watching his flower wilt gradually every day made even the slightest changes seem so, so terribly obvious.

“I’m sorry, Tae,” Onew hugged the jar, sobbing softly into the sleeve of his shirt. He sniffled, biting on his lips to stop the tears from falling, drawing blood from the impact of his teeth chomping down on the soft flesh of his lips.

 

❀

 

Yoongi groaned at the buzzing of his phone, arousing him from his slumber. He was still in the clothes from the previous night, and he reeked of alcohol. The boy tapped his phone furiously, making grunting noises as he finally pressed the right tab to answer the call.

“Yoongi? Are you even alive?!” Jungkook’s voice resonated from the device.

“Yeah. What’d you want from me, bitch?” Yoongi rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, grumbling as he tried to sit up. Though he failed, resulting in him re-curling back into a ball on his bed.

“Nah, just wanted to make sure you didn’t die. Anyways, I’ll be at the studio today so you can stay put and rest at your dorm.” It was really convenient of Jungkook to say so considering the earthquake of a headache currently in Yoongi’s head. Hangovers are _never_ good.

“Ah, thanks. I’ll see you soon.” Yoongi cleared his throat, hanging up on Jungkook and remained unmoving from his fetal position.

“Yoongi?” A familiar voice called out from the kitchen area, with Yoongi perking up reflexively as a response.

“Y-yeah.” Yoongi tried his best forming some form of a response. His voice was lower than usual, sounding pretty seductive after the influence of alcohol from the night before.

“I made food, go wash up.”

Yoongi groaned as he pushed himself up forcefully, struggling to stumble his way into the bathroom. He slipped his phone into his back pocket, resting his hands on the edge of the sink, staring up at his reflection in the mirror right in front of him. His eye bags were bad (better than usual but still bad), eyeballs bloodshot, and his complexion was the usual deathly pale. Washing up was a compilation of grunts (in pain) and whines (in annoyance), until the Yoongi’s nose finally took in the whiff of the aroma of pancakes that floated into the bathroom from the kitchen.

Yoongi dumped his toothbrush back where it belonged, throwing on a new shirt and wiping his freshly-washed face on the article of clothing. As he walked towards the kitchen, Hoseok was sitting on the countertop with a mouthful of pancake.

“In the pan.” Hoseok beamed, gesturing towards the pan that was left on the stove with the bobbing of his head. Of course, Yoongi replied with a grunt and the slight bow of his head, which meant a mix of _thank you but I don’t want to actually say it_ and _it’s not because I’m rude, I’m just lazy_.

“What do you have going on today?” Hoseok munched on his last pancake, watching Yoongi as the latter slipped the pancakes onto the plate in his hand.

“Nothing. I’m not going to the studio today.” Yoongi sighed, closing his eyes and trying to blink away the muffling pain up above.

Hoseok hesitated, “Do you um…wanna come to the dance studio with me?”

Yoongi paused, waiting for the words to register before spinning around to face the taller boy, “Me?”

“Yeah. Who else?” Hoseok heard a pathetic chuckle resonant in himself.

Yoongi felt a little bubble of hidden joy materialize within him, “But why? You don’t ever ask people to watch you dance while you practice.” He spun back around, hiding his face from Hoseok as he grabbed the bottle of maple syrup that sat next to the stove.

“I’ve always wanted to ask you. Just that I, never had the chance to.” Hoseok bit his lips, “A-ah, never mind. You know what, it’s alright if you don’t want to come. I mean, you’re probably still stuck with a hangov-” Yoongi’s eyes widened, the boy immediately shutting Hoseok up with a pancake to the mouth, maneuvering his fork carefully to avoid piercing through the pancake and stabbing Hoseok in the mouth.

“I’m going. Give me 30 minutes.” Yoongi retrieved his pancake, placing it back on his plate and retreating back to his bed.

“O-okay.” Hoseok wasn’t sure of the origin of the heat he felt on his face, whether it was from Yoongi’s words or the pancake that was on his face moments ago.

Both boys were out of the dorm within the next 45 minutes, with Hoseok whining at Yoongi to stop choosing between the 3 black beanies he had. Hoseok couldn’t understand the emotional attachment that Yoongi shared with his hats, especially when he was struggling to choose between three beanies that were completely identical.

The walk to the studio was rather pleasant, the welcoming winter breeze wasn’t too cold as of yet. The red foliage was almost gone, however, and that was a little upsetting for Yoongi considering how Autumn was always his favourite.

“You look like a creep, you know that?” Yoongi had his hands shoved in the pockets of his black hoodie. He donned his favourite black beanie, black sweats, and half-rimmed glasses. The black complimented the grey shine of his hair, at least Hoseok thought that way. Hoseok, on the other hand, had a white hoodie on along with black sweats. His hair styled in an upward fashion to keep it out of his face while he danced later on.

“Why?” Hoseok chuckled, amused at the sight of Yoongi stumbling every few steps. Looks like the hangover was doing its job well.

“Stop staring, for fuck’s sake.” Yoongi grumbled, taking one hand out of his pockets to pull his beanie lower.

“You’re awfully cute.” Hoseok sighed, pulling on his duffel and walking ahead of Yoongi. It was in that moment that Yoongi was grateful for Hoseok’s large strides because it allowed him to fall behind to hide the blush that was creeping onto his face. He would not tolerate for Hoseok to be seeing him in such a state.

 

❀

 

They’d been at the studio for 5 hours now, the sun was slowly leaving and it was getting dark outside.

“How’s progress?” Yoongi plunked himself down on the couch that sat by the back of the dance studio.

“I’ve started to feel uncomfortable during some parts in the current routine for the festival. So I’ve changing it up, been working on a new routine.” Hoseok pulled off his hoodie to reveal a sleeveless tank beneath that showed off his considerably toned _and sweaty_ torso, not that Yoongi was staring. Yoongi cleared his voice, shifting in his seat and shifting his eyes away.

“C-can I see the new routine?” Yoongi tried distracting himself from the view.

“Yeah, click the play button on the stereo for me.” Hoseok tapped the screen on his phone a few times, then proceeding to slide his phone across the floor to an area in front of him where he knew he wouldn’t step on. Yoongi reached over, pressing the button as requested and his track started playing.

Hoseok’s body was fluid, moving to the sound of Jungkook’s voice in the track. The track distracted for a moment with Yoongi listening to Jungkook instead. Jungkook’s voice was honestly ethereal. Yoongi took the boy in based on his composition talents, only to find out that his voice was golden too. _Just wait till the girls hear the track, they’d be begging Jungkook to fuck them with his voice._ Yoongi chuckled at his own thoughts before refocusing back on Hoseok who was gliding across the dancefloor like it was nothing.

The moment the track had reached its second verse where Yoongi’s rap began, Hoseok bumped it up a notch with him popping to the beat. Honestly, Yoongi thought it was sick. Though he wondered how Hoseok’s body could move in those ways without him dislocating every joint he moved.

As Hoseok travelled across the dancefloor, he occasionally glanced over to Yoongi, making momentary eye contact with the grey-haired boy. Hoseok tried focusing on the dance but he couldn’t stop the fleeting thoughts about how his dreams were slowly coming true. The one happening right now would be being able to have Yoongi watch him dance, all of Yoongi’s attention only on him. There was something else that Hoseok wanted to try, though he wasn’t sure he had the confidence just yet.

Hoseok pushed all thoughts away, focusing his vision on the mirror ahead and monitoring his own movement. This was to ensure that blood didn’t run south from all the thoughts that were swimming in his head just moment ago.

Yoongi on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes away from the dancing boy in front of him. Having a full view of Hoseok dancing was quite the view. It was almost like the rap gigs he’d been to, performer up front, the track on full blast and well, sweaty performer at the end of the performance. He had to admit that whenever Hoseok glanced over and made eye contact, he’d feel the rapid increase in his heartbeat. Was he nervous?

The track came to an end with Hoseok finishing in a pose with him kneeling on the ground. Yoongi felt a smile creep onto his face, his hands subconsciously coming together to clap for Hoseok. The clapping took Hoseok by surprise, taking him out of trance from the dance.

“Was I that great?” Hoseok smirked, groaning as he picked himself up from the floor.

“Better than I’ll ever be.” Yoongi leaned back in his seat, giving a genuine grin though his head was still throbbing.

“You could give it a try. Maybe you’ll find a new talent?” Hoseok walked over to where Yoongi was seated, reaching behind him to grab his bottle and towel. Yoongi laughed at Hoseok’s words, trying to imagine himself dance.

“I’ll trip over myself, bitch.”

Hoseok rolled his eyes, “You haven’t even tried. Get off your lazy ass.” Before Yoongi could even rebut, the brunette was already setting his things back down and grabbing onto Yoongi and pulling him up.

“What are you doing?” Yoongi glared daggers at Hoseok, firmly trying to pull his hands back wanting to recoil back into his fetal position. Unfortunately, Hoseok being a dancer actually meant that he had a good deal of strength, which also meant that Yoongi was up on his feet before he even finished protesting against it.

Hoseok pressed a button on the stereo before continuing to pull Yoongi towards other end of the room, with Yoongi giving him a look of worry.

“I know you don’t remember much from last night, but I’d like to try something.” Hoseok said with hooded eyes. Before Yoongi was able to respond, Hoseok was already pinning him against the wall, towering over him and gazing down at him with dark, lustful eyes. Yoongi’s hands reflexively raised up into a defensive position on Hoseok’s chest.

“I’m not going to hurt you. It’s just a dance.” Hoseok grunted, reaching up to pull Yoongi’s hand away. The ballad playing in the background didn’t really help, it only intensified the atmosphere and well, didn’t help as Yoongi slowly felt blood from running south. Don’t even forget about the hangover that still lingered.

Hoseok closed his eyes, slowly grinding his hips towards Yoongi. He refused to look at Yoongi, following only what his body wanted. After a series of body waves and hip thrusts, Hoseok was surprised to find Yoongi responding to him with hands that slowly moved down his chest, down his waist and resting on his hips. It didn’t take long for Yoongi to start moving his hips in ways Hoseok had only dreamed of seeing.

Yoongi slung one arm around Hoseok’s neck, pulling the latter closer as both boys were practically glued to one another. Once again, it didn’t take long for their hands to explore each other and for their lips to find the others’.

This time, Yoongi was definitely sober. Also, he was sure he remembered what happened _the night before_. Was it a good idea to tell Hoseok? _Probably not._ Yoongi’s arms found their way up to Hoseok’s neck, hugging the latter closer as Hoseok’s arms ran around Yoongi’s waist. Hoseok pulled away for a bit, staring into Yoongi’s eyes before going right back in to reattach their lips.

Hoseok’s lips were a soft, though firm, touch against Yoongi’s, both boys feeling the warmth spread through them. Yoongi felt Hoseok’s grip on him tighten and the moment he felt swipe of the other’s tongue on his own lips, Yoongi immediately gave in. Their tongues sneaked past each other, exploring every crevice in the newly discovered territory.

Yoongi was sure he tasted mint, probably from the mint candy he tossed to Hoseok earlier. Yoongi’s hand slipped up, running through and tugging on Hoseok’s soft locks with the latter giving out a soft moan at the sensation of it. It wasn’t until Yoongi ran out of breath that they parted lips, gazing back into each other’s eyes.

Hoseok felt tears slowly stinging the back of his eyes as he continued to look into Yoongi’s brown orbs. He cleared his throat, “I- uh, I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry.”

Yoongi was sure he saw the glisten in Hoseok’s beautiful eyes, did he do something wrong? Wasn’t it all going well?

“What? N-no, you didn’t do anything. Bitc- um, no you didn’t anything wrong.” Yoongi swore at himself mentally, _it was supposed to be a serious response_.

“No, it’s fine. I just…I don’t know, what are we?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“I can’t carry on like this, not knowing what we are to one another.” Yoongi heard the clear croak in Hoseok’s voice, “We need to talk.”

“Yeah.” Yoongi watched as Hoseok stared up at the ceiling, sniffling.

“Not tonight, though. I’ve had enough for one night.” Hoseok looked back at Yoongi, smiling though the sadness was obviously seeping out from him.

“Okay.”

 

❀

 

“Jinki, why don’t you take a break?” Taehyung approached the brunette from behind, murmuring so as to not disrupt the scene currently being acted out on stage. It’s been three hours since Onew had taken a break from directing, the current progress just wasn’t good enough yet.

“I’m fine. Can you help me vet this last scene once more?” Onew bit down on the end of his pen, holding the clipboard out towards Taehyung as his eyes were trained on the female lead who was skipping across the stage. Taehyung took the clipboard, sighing as he walked away to sit down.

As the girl on stage knelt down gracefully, she remained motionless as the stage lights dimmed to cue the prop change for the next scene. Onew clucked his tongue, calling out, “Cut! Everyone let’s gather on stage!” When every member had gathered in front of him, he did one last role call and briefing for next rehearsal the next day.

“Alright, well done, everyone. See you tomorrow!” Onew faked a smile, waving them away.

Taehyung approached Onew who was center stage, holding out the clipboard for him, “The last scene is good, they just need to act it out with the right amount of sorrow and it’ll be a great end to the production.”

“Thanks, Tae.” Onew smiled, genuinely this time, pressing his lips onto the younger boy’s cheek.

“It’s alright.” Taehyung smirked, turning away and moving to push one section of the backdrop back to where it belonged backstage. The wheels responsible for movement of the backdrop squeaked as he pushed the prop away.

_Boom_

It sounded like a box was dropped onto the wooden stage floor. Taehyung turned around, “Did someone-” His heart dropped as he saw Onew lying motionless in the middle of the stage.

“Someone call the ambulance!” Taehyung yelled, abandoning the prop and running back to where the motionless boy laid. Onew’s face was pale, with a thin layer of cold sweat covering his forehead.

“Y-you’ll be fine, baby. Stay with me.” Taehyung’s head was in a whirl, the only thing that made sense now was his hand in Onew’s.


	10. "Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally updated lmao this took me awhile to write especially since I was busy for the longest time. Plus, I had a mini writer's block so whoop whoop I'm back :')

Winter was finally kicking in with Jungkook wrapping himself up with the thickest, warmest coat his could find. He donned the black article of clothing, slipped on his boots and on the way out of the room, planted a kiss on sleeping Jimin’s forehead and grabbed the bag with his flower jar in it.

It took three rings before his mother answered the call, “Jungkook?”

“Mum, I’m on the way to your place. Do you need me to buy you anything?” Jungkook spoke into the phone, turning around and locking the door behind him.

“Oh, hmm, have you eaten lunch?” Mrs Jeon sounded cheerily through the phone.

“Nope, you?” Jungkook was out of the dorm building in no time, already heading in the direction of his favourite burger place.

“I haven’t either, buy some food over and we can eat together, darling.”

“Alright, love you, bye.” Jungkook hung up, shivering in the winter breeze and shoving his hand and phone into the pocket of his coat.

It took Jungkook about an hour to get everything before arriving at his mother’s shop. The boy cleaned his boots off, stepping into the shop and greeting his mother with a bear hug.

“How’s school, dear?” Mrs Jeon grinned her teeth-y smile, moving to grab the bags from Jungkook and placing the food on the table behind the counter.

“Oh, it’s okay. We’ve been busy with preparation for the spring festival.” Jungkook smiled back, moving to place his own jar in the flower refrigerator in the shop.

“Ah, no wonder you look so tired. How’s Jimin, by the way? I was really worried when he ran out like that the other time.” Mrs Jeon’s expression quickly warped into worry and confusion.

“He’s better now. Don’t worry, mum. Today, you can only worry about me.” Jungkook said with a wink, walking to the entrance of the shop to change the sign from ’Open’ to ‘Closed for Lunch’ and then heading back to the table where his mother stood unpacking all the food.

“That’s good to hear,” Mrs Jeon placed Jungkook’s burger in front of him just as he sat, “So, what’d you bring your flower for?”

“I’ve been tired lately, care to help revitalize my flower, mother?” Jungkook picked up his burger, opening the wrapper and digging right in.

“As always, you’re taking advantage of the fact your mother owns a flower shop,” Mrs Jeon dramatically ‘tsk-ed’, taking a bite out of her burger as well.

“You love me, so you won’t just leave my flower all droopy, would you?” Jungkook gasped, laughing as his mother landed a smack on his back.

“Eat first, we’ll talk later as you help me with the chores.” Mrs Jeon smirked, taking another big bite out of her burger.

After food, Mrs Jeon decided to keep the ‘Closed for Lunch’ sign on, moving to take her son’s flower out of the refrigerator to observe it. Jungkook watched his mother get down to business, his eyes glued to her every move. Mrs Jeon looked at the droopy daisy, noticing how even though it was droopy and weak, the stem was firm and a lush green, the petals still a fresh and bright white.

Mrs Jeon bit her lips, moving immediately to her supplies shelf and immediately grabbing for an empty spray bottle and moving to another shelf next to it, filling up the bottle with different liquids. The concoction of liquids was completed when Mrs Jeon poured in a little water and shook the bottle up after sealing it. She headed back to where the flower sat in a jar on the table, opening the jar lid and spraying the interior of the jar once with the spray bottle.

“That should do it. Your Daisy wasn’t in a bad condition to start with so, just rest up and your flower will feel the effect too.” Mrs Jeon grinned once more at her son, covering the jar up again with the lid. Jungkook walked up to his mother, grinning and giving her a kiss on the cheek, “Thanks, mum.”

“Alright, you should head back to school now. Jimin’s waiting,” Mrs Jeon teased, packing the jar back into the bag Jungkook had used, handing it to her son and helping him readjust his coat.

“I’ll see you soon, maybe with Jimin again.” Jungkook laughed, he held the bag in one hand and shoved his other hand into his pocket after waving once to his mother and stepping back out into the cold, “Love you!”

 

❀

 

It was almost 6pm when Jungkook had reached back on campus, with Min Yoongi blowing up his phone.

Jungkook had just reached the start of the hallway when his shoelace came untied. Placing his flower on the ground, he crouched on the floor to tie up the laces again, his phone buzzing for the tenth time.

“Yah Jeon Jungkook, your piece isn’t done,” Yoongi whined over the phone, the fatigue showing in his voice.

“S-sorry! I was out visiting my mum,” Jungkook was out of breath, puffs of white escaping his mouth from the freezing weather, his phone between his face and shoulder as he grabbed his laces.

“Oh, really? Well, sorry about that,” Yoongi hummed, “how’s Mrs Jeon?”

“She’s good, nagging as usual,” Jungkook chuckled, grinning at the thought of his mother. He’s definitely a mummy’s boy.

“Alright, hurry the hell up. We don’t have all day, we need to get this new version up to Onew.” Yoongi called out, hanging up almost immediately after he ended his sentence. Just as he stood up, a girl down the hallway dropped a stack of (possibly) 20 books. Being the Samaritan he is, Jungkook ran up to her, picking up the stack for her and offering to help her with the delivery of them. Of course, he was once again oblivious to the furious blushing present on the girl’s cheeks, off to the library they went.

Jimin had stepped out of school for a moment, going to get some necessities for their dorm and he’d just stepped into the hallway when he saw the abandoned paper bag all alone on the floor. He stopped for a moment, taking slower steps towards the bag and peeping into it. After all, it _was_ a suspicious item on the floor in the middle of an empty school hallway. As soon as he saw the contents, he gasped (pretty loudly).

It was a pretty white daisy in a flower jar, abandoned and all alone.

“Who in the world would be such an idiot?” Jimin frowned, nervous about carrying it back into his own room.

 

❀

 

“What took you so long, bitch,” Yoongi glared at Jungkook, the latter unable to avoid the daggers Yoongi were slowly stabbing him with.

“I helped someone carry books okay,” Jungkook raised his hands in a surrender, “I’m sorry!”

“Hmm,” Yoongi swiveled back around, facing his laptop, “get back to work.”

“Yes sir,” Jungkook grinned, knowing Yoongi always had a soft spot for him.

“Why’d you go visit your mum so suddenly though?” Yoongi mumbled, clicking twice and shaking his head at the mismatch in pitching.

“She owns a floral boutique, so I brought my flo-” Jungkook stopped mid-sentence, his whole body almost turning to stone.

 

_His daisy._

 

“Fuck, Yoongi, I’m sorry but I gotta go, this is a fucking emergency!” Jungkook dropped his headphones, immediately dashing out the door.

“Where are you going, brat!”

Jungkook slammed the door shut and ran back to where he first started, the hallway. The panic rising in him, a lump forming in his throat. _I’m a fucking idiot, why the fuck did I leave it there?!_ Jungkook cursed for the umpteenth time, his hands and feet getting restless as the elevator slowly made its way to the first floor.

As the door opened, Jungkook slipped through the tiny gap and escaped, heading for the hallway he was at previously. The hallway was empty. The floor was clear.

 

_His flower was gone._

 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, where did it go, fuck,” Jungkook ran his hands through his hair violently, the panic definitely hitting him hard. He reached for his phone, calling the one who’d know what to do at this moment.

“Jungkook?”

“I lost my flower!” Jungkook screamed into the phone, feeling the sting behind his eyes.

“You what?!” Mrs Jeon screamed back, in a higher pitch than Jungkook’s voice.

“I-I left it o-on the floor, a-and I left and- oh my god, mum, I’m going to die.” Jungkook bit his lips, the poor flesh turning pale white.

“Idiot!” Mrs Jeon sounded exasperated, “Okay, calm down first. You’re okay right now, right?”

“Besides the full-on panic attack about losing my flower, yes,” Jungkook’s eyes had never been wider, his forehead covered in a sheen of cold sweat.

“Okay, I think you’ll be fine,” Mrs Jeon said, “I’m sure someone found your flower and since you’re not dead yet, I don’t think the person has any ill intentions. Also, your flower should be nearby. If it weren’t nearby, you’d be on the floor in fetal position already.”

“A-are you sure?” Jungkook sighed, running his hand through his hair again. He was surprised that he hadn’t gone bald yet.

“Yes, now go fill in the form at the _Deflowering wall_ ,” Mrs Jeon reprimanded, “Do you feel ashamed now, darling?”

Jungkook was silent for a moment, “Yes.”

 

The _Deflowering wall_ , as much of an innuendo it was, was the wall where students would shamefully write in entries when they’d lose their flower. Just last semester, Namjoon had almost landed himself on the wall. It was all thanks to Seokjin who’d found it, as usual.

Jungkook hung up on the phone, feeling a shiver run down his spine at the same time he felt like he was impaled with a knife.

“The Deflowering wall? Me? No, no, fuck no. I’m not doing it. I’m fine. Someone will return it,” Jungkook felt all jittery and bit his lips harder, almost drawing blood in the process.

“I’m a fucking idiot,” Jungkook slapped himself once, immediately rubbing the sore spot.

 

❀

 

“I spoil that brat too much, that fucking-” Yoongi mumbled, rolling his eyes and taking another swig of his root beer.

 

_Buzz buzz_

 

“Oh fucking Christ, if it’s that boy I’m going to kill him,” Yoongi was startled by the vibration of his phone.

 **[6.45pm] Hoseok:** are you staying late at the studio today?

Yoongi paused, thinking for a bit as he typed in a reply. He really didn’t have much time left to get the track done.

 

 **[6.46pm] Yoongi:** ya, that brat left me alone and ran off

 **[6.46pm] Yoongi:** are you cooking today?

 **[6.47pm] Yoongi:** wait, you’re not going to the studio today?

 

 **[6.46pm] Hoseok:** yup, I’ll cook your portion too. nah, today’s cheat day boi

 **[6.47pm] Hoseok:** buy back some beer tho food isn’t free life isn’t fair

 

 **[6.48pm] Yoongi:** good god yes thank you boi

 **[6.48pm] Yoongi:** don’t burn our dorm down

 **[6.50pm] Yoongi:** fuck it I’m bringing work back to the dorm, not gonna let you burn the place down

 

❀

 

All hospitals smelled the same, the mixture of alcohol and clean. That’s all Taehyung could describe it as. The place wasn’t necessarily depressing, it has its fair share of happy moments too, and Taehyung just wasn’t part of those moments right now.

Onew laid motionless on the bed in the Intensive Care Unit, and he wasn’t allowed to see him.

 

_“Mrs Lee…may I see him?” Taehyung bit his lip, praying the tears wouldn’t betray him._

_“Taehyung…I know it’s hard for you, and we’re so sorry but we’d like to face this as his parents first. We’ll let you know if anything happens, okay?” Mrs Lee had been crying the whole night, her eyes bloodshot and the eye bags hanging heavy._

_“Of course, I fully understand, Mrs Lee. Thank you so much. I’m sure Jinki will be okay, I have faith in him.” Taehyung took the initiative to hug the frail-looking woman. It must’ve broken her heart to see her son in this state._

_“Thank you so much, sweetie,” Mrs Lee accepted the hug warmly, smiling for the first time ever since she’s stepped into the hospital._

 


	11. “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m alive, everyone. Do not worry :-) I apologize for the long hiatus, I had a really hectic semester and was unable to really write for a really long time. So as an apology, this chapter is about 5.5k words long!! Enjoy!! :-)

Seokjin dashed straight to the council meeting room the moment Namjoon told him that Onew had come back to school, accidentally shoving a few people during his mad dash.

“Feeling better, buddy?” The door bust open, shocking Onew as the poor boy yelped.

“Oh my fucking god I’m going to get a heart attack,” Onew rest his hands on the table, sitting upright in his seat and his eyes remained wide open. He was sleepy from the drowsy medicine the doctors had put him on but apparently not anymore.

“I’m sorry man but,” Seokjin scrambled past the seats and headed straight for Onew, enveloping the boy in his arms, “I’m glad you’re back. I don’t have to keep notes for you anymore.”

“Ouch, my heart,” Onew dramatically gasped, “Is my presence only comforting for the fact you don’t have to keep study notes for me?”

“Shut up,” Seokjin laughed, pulling away to stare at the boy. He’d definitely gotten slimmer as his cheeks hollowed out slightly, the bags underneath his eyes were no joke.

“Does Taehyung know about you coming back?” Seokjin looked up at the clock hanging in the room, the rest of them should be arriving soon.

“Yeah, he’s been at the hospital for the whole week that I was out,” Onew sighed, though thankful for the younger boy.

“It was about time you let him in, you know. The poor boy has been waiting for so long,” Seokjin gave a ‘tsk’, standing up and moving back to his seat at the front of the table just as there was a knock on the door. The knob turned as the door swung open and three guys strolled in, followed by another three soon after.

“Hi guys, how’s everyone? It’s been awhile since the last meeting,” Seokjin began speaking, opening his notebook and pulling out a pen. The responses he’d gotten were shrugs and tired smiles.

“Oh well, things will get better once we get this festival off our butts,” Seokjin cleared his throat, “Alright, how’s progress?”

Hoseok sat up in his chair, “Jimin and I have settled the dances temporarily and the routines are going well so far. Many dancers have signed up for both items so we’re good on manpower. Now we’re just left with the costumes, props, and the polishing for the dances.”

“Alright, sounds good,” Seokjin turned to Namjoon to see the latter done typing, looking up and smiling back at him, “Yoongi?”

“We’ve settled manpower for the day of the festival itself, we’ve done the first round of equipment checks and they’re good. We’ve completed the contemporary units’ piece, as well as one of the pieces for the drama club. So we’re down to two more song to fine-tune and we’re good to go.” Yoongi’s voice was slightly hoarse from the amount of chocolate he’d downed the past few days, sweet things to keep the bitter away.

“Alright, drink some water, buddy,” Seokjin chuckled, looking over at Taehyung who was stuck next to Onew like glue.

Taehyung had been watching Onew for the longest time ever since he’d stepped into the meeting room, almost as if he were afraid Onew would shatter into pieces. The moment Taehyung entered the meeting room, he’d plopped himself next to Onew, interlacing their hands below the table.

Taehyung looked up at Seokjin, “The drama club is doing well. We’ve done our mass script reading and we’ve started rehearsing some scenes with the current tracks that we have. When Yoongi and Jungkook drop us the last track, we’ll finish up on those scenes and we’ll start on the run-throughs.”

“Alright, that’s good. The council has received several sponsorships, and we’re good for manpower. Namjoon?” Seokjin looked at Namjoon, watching him type furiously though expressionless.

“We’re done with logistics, the blueprint for set-up on event day is complete too. Publicity is on-going and that’s about it.” Namjoon pushed his spectacles up.

“That’s great, this committee is efficient, thank god. Unlike a few idiots back in the council, god damn. Anyways, I hope we all remember the committee bonding event I mentioned long ago?” Seokjin asked, seeing everyone nod their heads simultaneously, the aura in the room getting brighter at the mention of a holiday.

“Yes, so it’ll be a stay over at a place just outside of the city that Onew’s family owns, a two day two night trip this weekend. Is everyone able to make it?” Seokjin asked, seeing no one object to the dates he’s mentioned.

“Alright, we’ll leave on Friday night after curriculum and we’ll be back by Sunday night. So you boys have a few days to pack, it’ll be fun.” Seokjin made a note on his calendar, smiling at the group as he dismissed the meeting. Jimin and Hoseok headed back to the studio while Yoongi and Jungkook went back to theirs as work ensued. Taehyung pulled Onew along with him, heading back to his dorm room.

Seokjin and Namjoon were the last to leave the room, both boys sitting next to each other in silence.

“Are you okay?” Seokjin turned to the lilac-haired boy who was still typing away on his computer.

“I guess,” Namjoon faked a smile, trying to appease Seokjin’s curiosity for now. He wasn’t, he really wasn’t. It wasn’t anything specific that triggered it but, it just seemed to hit him hard.

“Are you sure?” Seokjin sat up in his seat, concern laced into the beautiful brown orbs, “Please tell me if there’s anything wrong, anything at all.”

“I’m fine,” Namjoon looked back at Seokjin, taking comfort in the concern and the warmth in his words, “It’s something I need to deal on my own.”

Namjoon wasn’t sure, but he swore he saw a look of hurt flash through Seokjin’s eyes. He wanted to reach out to Seokjin, cradle his face between both his hands and tell him everything was okay. He wanted to tell Seokjin about how much he wanted to kiss him, about how much he wanted to wake up to Seokjin’s head on his chest. How much he wanted to tell Seokjin everything that he thinks Seokjin would reject. That’s why it was fine, it was fine that they remained a part of each other’s lives. It was too much of a risk having to tell Seokjin all that, to once again put himself in the mercy of someone who could hurt him so, so deep. For now, Namjoon shan’t say anything. He shan’t say anything more, nothing at all.

“Don’t get back to the room too late,” Seokjin bit his lips, pushing himself off of his chair and grabbing his things before slowly making his way to the door. He took one last look at Namjoon with the latter nodding once with a smile on his face before walking out the door with a pain in his chest.

The moment Namjoon was left alone, he exhaled loudly, almost a sigh. It was a tough week, it really was. Namjoon had to go back to where he disliked it the most, having to speak to his parents about the continuation of his scholarship as well as his future after graduation. It tormented him- it took him four hours, sitting at the bench in the park near the campus and ensuring he wouldn’t touch his own flower again. 

 

_“What are you doing here?” Mrs Kim questioned the moment she saw her son walk in through the door. It didn’t take Namjoon by surprise anymore, she barely acknowledges his existence and feelings anymore (not that she did to begin with)._

_“Take a look at this,” Namjoon sighed, reaching behind to grab the document from his bag that was slung on his shoulder._

_“Could you read it please? I’m a little busy here,” Mrs Kim groaned, Namjoon didn’t have to look at her to know how far back her eyes rolled in annoyance._

_“Dear Mr and Mrs Kim, we are pleased to inform you that your child, Kim Nam Joon, has been chosen by our board of directors to continue his scholarship for the next school year. He has also done very well in both academics and extra-curriculum activities, making his way onto the director’s list. We-” Namjoon was cut off as Mrs Kim snatched the letter out of his hand._

_“This is wonderful!” Mrs Kim’s eyes were filled with happiness, gleaming with pride. Namjoon was frozen on the spot, he didn’t know the appropriate response to situations like this. He’d never seen his mother happy with whatever he did._

_Unfortunately, the smile was ripped off of Namjoon’s face immediately as his mother spoke again, “Did you not get any scholarship offers to further your studies?”_

_Mrs Kim stood in front of her son, all expressions wiped off her face and her hand on her hip, “Answer me.”_

_“N-no, I don’t think they start sending out offers this ear-” Namjoon spoke cautiously, feeling his soul leave it’s shell._

_“Nonsense, if you did well enough they’d send it immediately. Come back when you do better,” Mrs Kim sighed, turning away from her son once again, showing him the view he’d hated seeing the most- her back view._

_Namjoon bit back the tears, making sure the tears didn’t escape as he spoke once again, “Anyways, I came back to show you the notice as well as inform you about the Spring Festival. You can come if you want.”_

_“I’m leaving,” Namjoon stuffed the letter back where it belonged- in its folder and in his bag._

 

❀

 

“Are you alright? You’ve been sighing nonstop the past two hours…” Jimin slipped a pair of sneakers into his luggage, watching Jungkook with his peripheral vision. The latter only hummed in response, standing up from his position on the bed to grab clothes from his closet.

“You can tell me about it, you know? You don’t have to keep mum,” Jimin looked at the raven-haired boy, waiting for a response.

“It’s alright,” Jungkook smiled back at Jimin to reassure the boy, “It’s really no big deal, probably just tired from staring at my laptop for hours.” _No, you lost your bloody flowers, idiot._ Jungkook cussed himself out mentally, sighing once again.

“Alright then,” Jimin’s forehead was full of creases, but he couldn’t do anything about Jungkook deciding to keep to himself. 

The boys continued packing their bags in silence, the fatigue from festival preparations eating away at their bones. By the time they were almost done, Jungkook stood up away from his bag and turned to Jimin, “Hey, I’m actually gonna go buy some travel necessities and food, do you want to come along?” 

“Hell yeah, I want a burger,” Jimin turned to face the other boy, stifling a yawn with a smile as he sat on the ground by his open luggage.

“Nice, I’ll go take a piss first,” Jungkook grinned, half-running into the bathroom, almost running into the door as it opened half a second late. Jimin burst out laughing, watching as a pouting Jungkook slamming the door shut in urgency. 

Jimin turned back to his side of the closet, opening the flower compartment and paused for a moment, looking at the two jars. He scratched his head, wondering how he’d find the flower’s owner. Just as he heard the toilet flush, he scrambled to take the white daisy out of its original jar, stuffing it into his jar with his rose and rushing to hide it in his luggage before Jungkook reappeared.

The raven-haired boy closed the door behind him, calling out to Jimin, “Ready?”

“Yep!” Jimin zipped up his luggage, hopping off the floor, interlacing his fingers with Jungkook’s as the latter stretched his hand out.

 

❀

 

“Where’s my black hoodie?!” Yoongi shouted from inside the bathroom, startling Hoseok who was just outside packing instant noodles into his bag.

“What?” Hoseok yelled back, pushing the cups into his bag and grunting at how it wouldn’t fit nicely.

“My favorite black hoodie!”

“For fuck’s sake Yoongi, all your hoodies are black!” Hoseok whined, “Just grab any one!”

“I can’t, I need it, I NEED THAT ONE HOODIE!” Yoongi flung open the bathroom door, eyes bloodshot, and his hair a mess that fluffed in every direction possible.

“Ugh, how does it even look like?” Hoseok paused his own packing, turning to face Yoongi who was scuttling around the entire apartment.

“It’s…black, it has a hoo-”

“DO YOU THINK I’M AN IDIOT?” Hoseok screamed, flipping Yoongi off, “ANYTHING SPECIFIC?” 

“…the one you bought me in our first year,” Yoongi turned away from Hoseok, feeling himself heat up both at the embarrassment as well as from all the running he’d done to find that one article of clothing that was of utmost importance to him.

“You’re an actual idiot,” Hoseok turned away, scolding Yoongi as he continued hastily stuffing snacks into his bag.

“What?” Yoongi turned back to face the brunette, wearing a somewhat offended expression.

“I said, you’re an actual idiot,” Hoseok mumbled, avoiding Yoongi even as the latter walked towards him, trying to look him in the eyes.

“Why?!” Yoongi huffed, grabbing Hoseok by the collar, “What’s wrong with me wanting to bring that hoodie?!”

“There’s nothing wrong with that!” Hoseok finally escaped from Yoongi’s death grip.

“Then why are you calling me an idiot?!” Yoongi called out, exasperated at Hoseok avoiding the topic, “I really like that hoodie!”

“It’s because you’re fucking wearing it!”

Yoongi could possibly boil himself alive with the heat that rose to his cheeks.

 

❀

 

After a ten hour drive, almost everyone in the van had knocked out cold.

“We’re here!” Seokjin shouted in glee, waking up every other person who was previously asleep as he pulled to a stop right outside the house. The sun has long set and it was a really ungodly hour, it was like 5am- how was Seokjin still awake and _happy_ when he drove through the night?

Jungkook was tapped on the tip of his nose once, shocked awake at the contact from Jimin. The raven haired boy immediately turned to look down, checking to see if he’d drooled on Jimin’s shoulder. Thank god, he didn’t. Jimin chuckled, hand going to cradle Jungkook’s cheek briefly before planting a peck on the boy’s lips before shifting away to alight from the vehicle after Hoseok.

The house standing in front of them looked like a little shed just upon the beach, built with old-fashioned bricks with even a chimney on the roof for the fireplace. After Seokjin pulled Namjoon awake, he went on to shoo the remaining 6 boys into the house away from the cold. 

The lights were switched on, revealing a house that was breath-taking. Its interior was white and beige with fully carpeted floors and cozy furniture lining the whole place. It looked like a lodge you’d find in the middle of a forest, not exactly one you’d find by the beach. It certainly had greenery around, perfect for an outdoor campfire. The place had exactly 4 bedrooms, two boys to a room. Hoseok had almost walked into the wall before Yoongi grabbed him hastily by the neck, pulling him with one hand and (somehow) grabbing both their bags with the other as he grunted, directing the taller boy into the room, “Hoseok, try not to die when I’m not around.” Hoseok’s whining could be heard even as the door slammed shut.

“Well, off to bed everyone, later shall be a new adventure,” Onew chuckled, hand interlacing with Taehyung’s as the younger boy had his eyes still firmly shut and pulling him along into their room.

“Yes please,” Jungkook mumbled, hands reaching out blindly with his own eyelids slowly drooping shut as well. Jimin raised an eyebrow, certain that Jungkook was trying to search for him and hence did him the favor of letting himself be found by pulling Jungkook by the collar and into the room Seokjin pointed at for them.

Seokjin had his hands on his hips, waiting for Namjoon to grab the bags from the van but he never did return for the next 15 minutes. After standing around a little longer, Seokjin wrapped his hoodie around him tighter before huffing once and trudging back out into the cold.

“Namjoon?!” Seokjin called out, not seeing Namjoon’s figure anywhere in sight. With panic laced in his voice, he called out once more, “Joon-ah! Where are you?!”

As Seokjin went out further into the cold, he sighed in relief when a familiar lengthy figure was out there in the distance strolling by the beach. Seokjin kept his hands in his pockets, quickening his footsteps and running up to Namjoon.

“Why are you out here? You didn’t even tell me where you’d be!” Seokjin huffed out once again, the vapor from his breath spreading externally.

“I-I’m sorry, I just needed to- never mind, I’m sorry, let’s go bac-” Namjoon was cut off with the pressing of Seokjin’s lips to his, with the latter as the initiator.

“Don’t run off again,” Seokjin pulled away, interlacing his fingers with Namjoon’s freezing ones, “Don’t you dare.”

“Whatever you may be thinking of, tell me, let me hear it and let me try to understand your pain,” Seokjin smiled slightly, unbeknownst to him was Namjoon’s cardiac muscles rapidly pumping away, “So don’t shut me off, Joon. Please?”

“I promise I won’t, I’m sorry for frightening you,” Namjoon scratched the back of his neck, “Let’s go back.”

“We’ll talk loads in the morning, alright?” Seokjin took a step back, pulling Namjoon with him and bringing them both back towards the house.

 

❀

 

The sky got brighter every moment, red hues colouring the cloud as they drifted by. It was chilly, Jungkook burying deeper into the blankets as he was still dead asleep. Jimin felt the movement, shaking himself awake as he sat up, burying his face in his hands. His eyes were burning, indicating clearly how much he lacked sleep. 

He turned slightly, exposing his right eye and watching over the sleeping boy. Jimin chuckled, hand going to pull the blankets higher, covering Jungkook fully. Jungkook was definitely asleep, even as he stretched his arms, pulling Jimin towards him and wrapping his arms around Jimin’s exposed thigh.

“J-Jeon Jungkook, what are you doing?” Jimin felt himself heat up instantly, extremely aware of the sudden closeness in contact. He was completely okay with the physical contact, really. He just didn’t expect it that early in the morning.

“WAKE UP KIDS!” Seokjin’s voice boomed from outside in the living room, the reverberation in his voice traveling along the walls, “TIME TO GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTTS!”

Jimin was sure he heard Yoongi yelling, Hoseok yelling awhile after. It seemed that he wasn’t the only light sleeper around. Jimin watched as Jungkook’s face remained stoic, the serene and continuous deep slumber showing through in the lack of facial expressions from the boy. 

Jimin hated to be the bad guy, “Jungkook, wake up baby.” Jungkook groaned, seeming to have finally risen a little bit more out of his slumber.

It took Seokjin another 40 minutes of rushing and preparation before he managed to throw all 7 other boys out of the house, successfully getting them into the van before taking off towards the theme park that was nearby.

There was no lack of whining from Yoongi and Jungkook. Hoseok screamed about his displeasure about Seokjin’s plan to make everyone take the most intense roller coaster there was; Namjoon was snoring slightly in the front passenger seat, fingers interlacing with Seokjin’s free hand. Taehyung and Onew both leaning on each other, stealing naps whenever they could, and Jimin, was quietly watching Jungkook, giggling from time to time.

“We’re going, that’s final!”

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?” Hoseok’s face was slowly turning red, the panic turning into whines.

“WHY NOT?!” Seokjin glared at Hoseok through the rearview mirror, his face turning equally as red as Hoseok’s. 

“BUT- BUT I’M-” Hoseok started, hands going up.

“NO BUTS. WE’RE GOING. JUST ONCE AT LEAST, HOSEOK.” Seokjin shut the boy up, leaving his final words as Yoongi finally covered Hoseok’s mouth with his own hand. 

“Forget it Seok, we’re going on it,” Yoongi rolled his eyes, “No use fighting.”

It was true that all 8 boys ending up on the same ride. The one that accelerated with an amazing speed, dipping and turning, going front and back, up and down. It looped and stopped, suddenly descending again. Hoseok had never wanted to die so quickly in his life. He spent the whole 1 minute and 47 seconds ride gripping onto Yoongi as tightly as he could.

Yoongi was cackling the whole time, pleased with the fact that Hoseok actually needed him- no matter for comfort or as a punching bag. Jungkook screamed like the 7 year old he was on the inside, his hand laced with Jimin’s as the latter wasn’t that great with rides. Jimin loved rides, but he just couldn’t get used to the feeling of his stomach flipping upside down. Namjoon wouldn’t admit it, but seeing Seokjin scream in horror and regret made his day absolutely bright. 

“WE ARE NEVER TAKING THAT AGAIN,” Seokjin was hunched over, “NOPE.”

“I FUCKING T-TOLD YOU-” Hoseok wanted to die, he felt his breakfast come back up his oesophagus, cutting himself off as he covered his mouth. Yoongi rolled his eyes, both hands on Hoseok’s shoulders, pulling him away. Jungkook was jumping up and down, hugging Jimin and making the older boy jump with him too. 

“Can we please split up, I need to ride that again and I would appreciate for Hoseok to not be around,” Jungkook exclaimed, hands going up into the air.

“YES, I’M GONE,” Hoseok dashed away, hands covering his mouth. Yoongi’s expression was priceless, he yelled after Hoseok, following after him as Jungkook saw him run for the first time ever.

Namjoon watched as Seokjin grabbed onto his arm, pulling him away and towards the toilet. He was not ready to help clean up food that was regurgitated out of Kim Seokjin’s digestive system.

“I guess we’re splitting up,” Taehyung smirked, hand going down to squeeze Onew’s ass once.

 

❀

 

“Jin, are you okay?” Namjoon called from outside the bathroom stall, knocking once gently. The door swung open as Seokjin strutted out, going straight to wash his hands with a stoic expression.

“Of course,” Seokjin grinned, “seeing as I made everyone split up, I’m feeling fantastic.”

Namjoon was confused, “Wait, what?”

“I’m not that bad with rides, Joon,” Seokjin walked towards Namjoon, hooking his arm around the latter’s and pulling him out of the restroom.

“So, that was al-” Namjoon was cut off by Seokjin immediately.

“Fake.” Seokjin chuckled, “I didn’t want to seem like a hypocrite, seeing as I wanted the bonding outing but I’m also the one wanted time alone with someone else.” 

“…is that me?” 

“Yes, it’s you.” Seokjin planted a kiss on Namjoon’s lips, pulling him towards the next ride in the distance, not noticing Namjoon’s mad blush (Namjoon thanked the heavens).

The boys all spent the next 4 hours all split up in pairs, devouring all the adrenaline the theme park had to offer. Except for Hoseok and Yoongi, seeing as Hoseok tapped out after 3 extreme rides. He only went because he knew Yoongi loved them, but even then, his stomach was more important than his love for Yoongi. 

“I’m going to die, I feel so bad,” Hoseok had his hands to his stomach, “I’m going to puke the fuck out of my intestines.” Yoongi felt a little guilty, seeing as Hoseok really couldn’t handle the rides but he forced himself for Yoongi’s sake. It was obvious that he only did it for Yoongi. Hoseok sat by the bench, Yoongi right next to him with Jungkook and Jimin walking towards them from the distance.

“Yoongi, aren’t you coming?” Jungkook called out to the silver-haired boy, he and Jimin still bumbling like busy bees, all excited over everything.

“Nah, this baby needs babysitting.” Yoongi smiled, gesturing to Hoseok with his shoulders seeing as both his hands were occupied in the pockets of his hoodie.

“You can go, I’m really okay,” Hoseok was green, he was just a step away from puking his own guts out.

“Nah, I’m really sleepy right now, I don’t want to,” Yoongi whined, hoping that Hoseok wouldn’t shoo him away.

“Hmm, okay if you say so,” Hoseok mumbled, he knew how much Yoongi loved rides and he felt really guilty. But then again, he felt too sick to really care at that point.

 

❀

 

The boys had gone to the nearest grocery store, stocking up on ingredients for a grill and campfire. Basically, it was the purchase of pre-cooked food like sausages, as well as cartons of beer bottles. 

It took Namjoon two burns on his arm before he’d gotten the bonfire to light up properly with Yoongi right next to him, suffering from all the clumsy mistakes Namjoon had made. The fire wasn’t bad though, it’d made it through their dinner and was still pretty bright by the time they’d gone through 4 cartons of beer.

Though the fire slowly died down, the ambers continue cackling in the darkness illumination just enough for Yoongi to watch Jimin’s face. The other six boys had moved back down the hill and into the house, taking shelter in the warm beds away from the cold outside.

“How are you and Jungkook?” Yoongi’s voice wavered a little, it must’ve been the alcohol.

“We’re great, he’s…he’s so good,” Jimin smiled, tilting his head back to look up into the Prussian blue up above.

“I’m really happy for you, sincerely,” Yoongi smiled, dropping the beer bottle in his lap to keep it steady standing up on the lumpy grass, “But I do have something to tell you. I don’t think I could keep silent about it anymore.”

“What is it?” Jimin downed the last of his bottle, looking back at Yoongi who looked almost frozen in his spot.

“I liked you,” Yoongi looked away, exhaling and watching as the fog drift away. Jimin’s eyes widened a little, his eyes glued to the older boy.

“The word is past tense, don’t get so ruffled up,” Yoongi chuckled, looking back down at his hands in his lap.

“H-how long has it gone for?” Jimin watched Yoongi’s every move, hearing the latter sigh.

“About two, almost three years. Ever since high school,” Yoongi explained, “I’ve never even talked to you, but it was just…I felt it, and I don’t always feel much.”

“But I got over you awhile after you came here, I guess you unknowingly helped me see things in someone I’d never expect myself to notice and realize,” Yoongi reached for his bottle, taking a swig and feeling the warmth spread down his throat.

“I did?” Jimin said, almost confused.

“Yeah, thank you for helping me see what I hadn’t realised for the longest time. I’m the biggest idiot there is,” Yoongi laughed, mostly at his own pathetic self.

“So, you have someone else, right?” Jimin started to smile, watching Yoongi’s eyes light up in thoughts of whoever it was.

“Yeah, someone else,” Yoongi smiled, looking up into the sky, noticing clusters of stars everywhere. The sound of a broken branch startled them both, their heads snapping at the direction behind them only to see only more greenery. A cricket sounded in the distance, probably calling for its own mate, too.

“Is it Hoseok?” Jimin teased as they turned back, watching Yoongi stiffen at the name immediately, “Say no more, I got the message.” Jimin chuckled at Yoongi’s stiffening, both boys laughing, probably from the influence and aid of alcohol.

“You should tell him,” Jimin said, “He likes you too.”

“W-what? Why would he?” Yoongi thought it was the most bewildering thing he’d heard.

“You’re really an idiot. From the moment I stepped into this college, from the moment I saw you both together, I knew that he was head over heels for you.” Jimin rolled his eyes, feeling more exasperated at the obliviousness he was witnessing.

“…he is?”

“For fuck’s sake, yes! I’ve known him for more than a decade now, I know when he likes someone! I can tell!” Jimin threw his hands in the air, grabbing his hair with frustration.

“I guess-” Yoongi started, only to be cut off by Jimin.

“Tell him! Fucking shit, do I really need to teach you?!”

 

❀

 

Hoseok stepped back into the house, throwing his shoes off and heading straight to the room he shared with Yoongi, immediately slamming the door shut. He slipped into the covers, burying himself in blankets as it replayed in his mind.

 

_“So, you have someone else, right?”_

_“Yeah, someone else,”_

 

“You never had a chance anyways,” Hoseok scolded himself as he hugged the blanket tighter, “Go to sleep.” 

All he had done was worry about whether Yoongi was okay out in the cold, trudging back up the hill to see him and Jimin deep in conversation. To see them laughing, and to hear that Yoongi had someone else, did he really offend every heaven up there to deserve this? For the first time, Hoseok had given up and he wasn’t going to bother himself anymore. He wasn’t going to cry, _again_. But, he did. He definitely cried himself to sleep that night, muffling his voice as he heard Yoongi step back into their shared room. 

“I don’t know if you’re asleep, but-” it sounded like Yoongi’s voice, Hoseok feeling himself stiffen instantly, “Never mind.” Hoseok’s heart plummeted, probably hitting the core of the Earth by now.

 

❀

 

Yoongi had left the bonfire, the dried leaves crunching beneath his feet as he made his way back to the house while Jimin stayed, butt-planted into the ground by the warmth of the fire. 

 

_“Daddy, where are you going?” Jimin was 12, about to be left alone in the huge apartment as his parents left for vacation without him. But of course, he didn’t realize it then._

_“Get the fuck out of my sight,” Once again, the strong arms that never embraced him had shoved him aside and into the wall, “If you die while I’m gone, take your corpse with you.” Mr Park grunted, grabbing his luggage in his hand while being ushered out the apartment by his wife who remained silent._

_As the heavy door closed, the sound of the wood slamming shut reverberating through Jimin’s heart as the boy cried once again._ **_Why’d I have to choose Red? Why did I do that?_ **

 

Jimin shook his head, running his fingers through his hair, deciding to finally unstick himself from the ground as he felt the oncoming tsunami of emotions. He decided that he didn’t want it tonight, he had enough. He was having a great time, and he didn’t want it to end like how great nights like these usually did- it wouldn’t be great.

Jungkook’s soft snoring was always adorable to Jimin, bringing an immediate smile to the latter’s face as he stepped back into their shared room after the conversation with Yoongi. Jimin immediately padded over to Jungkook’s side of their shared queen sized bed, kneeling beside him. The raven haired boy had his grey hood up, his bangs covering his forehead and slightly sweeping over his nose, his hair was getting long. The moonlight slithering in through the cracks of the curtains gracefully illuminated Jungkook’s face- he was almost glowing. 

Jimin felt his heart buzzing with warmth- either from the alcohol or the affection, probably both- as he leaned down, pecking Jungkook once softly on the lips as he was careful to not wake the boy. A smile grew on Jimin’s face, he always loved feeling the print of Jungkook’s lips on his after a kiss.

With a sigh, Jimin pushed himself back up onto his feet, tiptoeing back to his bag as he plopped himself on the carpeted floor. He reached into his closed luggage, hand feeling for the cool of the jar as he pulled it out and laid it on his lap. 

_Was it his eyes playing tricks on him? Was it actuall- it was._

Jimin froze as he felt the panic seeping into him from everywhere and he didn’t know what to do. 

 

_“Professor, how does it work, exactly?” Someone from the back of the lecture hall called out._

_Professor Kim hummed, “No one really knows yet, actually. It’s still being researched. We’ve seen cases where flowers have been put in the same jar and remained their original colours while in other cases, the flowers mixed colours just after days of being placed in the same jar.”_

_“Regardless, as long as the flowers mix colours, the owners form a special connection- emotionally, physically, and mentally. Almost…almost as if they’d become soul mates.” Professor Kim grinned, hopping off the table and heading back to the board, “But as I’ve said, we’re not sure what happens to the hybrid flowers. I mean, bad things could happen too.”_

 

“It’s patchy with red…no, no, no. This can’t happen. The daisies are turning pink.” Jimin whispered, dropping the bottle into his lap and feeling choked up in his chest. He hastily dumped the bottle back into his luggage, sealing it away from sight as he ran back and buried himself in blankets on the bed. Thankfully, Jungkook was a deep sleeper, or Jimin wouldn’t have known how to explain the bawling he’d done that night. He had successfully made himself feel like the world’s biggest fuck up, as well as successfully completely soaking the pillow wet with his tears. He hoped that they’d dry in the morning before Jungkook woke up.


End file.
